ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF ORGANIZING

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Salary and benefits:

• Salary range is $50,000 - $80,000, depending on experience;
• Excellent benefit package (including medical, dental, optical, prescription drugs, pre-paid legal, Flexible Spending Accounts, Life Cycle Benefits, Long Term Care Insurance, and other benefits) with family coverage (including domestic partners);
• Excellent retirement plan.

Description:

The New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, AFL-CIO, is the union that represents approximately 25,000 hotel workers in New York City. The Council works closely with its nine affiliated local trade unions from the following International Unions: OPEIU, SEIU, UNITE HERE, IUOE, IBEW, IUPAT and USWA. The Hotel Trades Council is the strongest union, with the best contract, for hotel workers in North America.

The New York City hotel industry has been experiencing a prolonged construction boom and it is vital to our members, and to those who work without the dignity of a union contract, that we maintain and improve union density in our industry. This year we plan to launch a new, long-term program to organize non-union hotels in the city on a large scale. We intend to commit the staff and resources necessary to build a winning organizing program.

We have an immediate opening at the management level for an individual with considerable experience managing a successful union organizing program. We offer a stimulating environment in a powerful union that encourages and develops active rank-and-file leadership.

This is a unique and exciting opportunity for a highly qualified individual to move to a very powerful union and organize a major industry from a position of strength. The Council has an impressive record of accomplishment and many resources. In 2004, our membership voted overwhelmingly to assess itself $1040 per member to fund the union's war chest and bolster its organizing program. Last summer we won our best-ever citywide contract with the active support of a new rank-and-file leadership structure we call the H.E.A.T. System.

Responsibilities:
1. Assisting the leadership of the union to plan and execute an overall organizing strategy for the union;
2. Assist in the management of the organizing department;
3. Assist with the hiring, training and supervision of the organizing staff and the staff assigned to organizing projects;
4. Assist with the direction of the union's organizing program from targeting shops to negotiating first contracts;
5. Direct recruitment and training of organizing committees, and performing all of the duties of an organizer or lead organizer as needed.
Note: On occasion, it is possible that the Assistant Director of Organizing, as well as most of the staff of the Organizing Department, may be sent to work in other cities to assist other unions. However, the job is almost entirely limited to work in New York City and the surrounding area.

Qualifications:

• Experience managing large bottom-up union organizing campaigns against major anti-union consultants;
• Experience recruiting organizers;
• Experience training and managing organizers;
• Experience negotiating collective bargaining agreements;
• Experience managing strikes;
• Experience working as an organizer and lead organizer on bottom-up organizing campaigns, and building rank-and-file organizing committees;
• Commitment to social justice;
• Ability to communicate well, both verbally and in writing;
• Ability to establish close relationships with people from different cultural and economic backgrounds;
• Ability to juggle multiple tasks, work efficiently and be well organized;
• Ability to pay thorough attention to details;
• Willingness to work hard and put in long hours;
• Willingness to travel on behalf of the union when necessary;
• Valid driver's license;
• Preferably - ability to speak another language (in addition to English), especially one of the following: Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese,
  Russian, Bengali, or Polish.

This position offers good prospects for advancement. Resourceful and committed staff members who become familiar with the Union's operations have numerous opportunities for rewarding and interesting work.

In addition to a résumé, references and cover letter, applicants for this position should send a detailed description of their career as a union organizer, and more specifically, as a manager of union organizers. This should include a list and description of the organizing drives, strikes, and negotiations the applicant worked on (clearly describing the nature of the applicant's role in each); and a description of the applicant's work recruiting, training, and supervising organizers. In addition, please send writing samples authored by the applicant such as organizing literature, training material for organizers or organizing committee members, or other material relevant to the qualifications specified above.

Send the above to:

E-mail: careers@nyhtc.org

Or mailing address:

Jim Donovan, General Organizer
New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, AFL-CIO
709 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10036

The New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, AFL-CIO is an equal opportunity employer. All persons regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, religious affiliation and sexual orientation are actively encouraged to apply.

People of color and women strongly urged to apply.