We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers' Union, 1912-1953

by Shaun Richman

Overview

One of New York City’s most powerful unions, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, AFL-CIO, represents almost 40,000 workers. Shaun Richman’s history places the labor organization within the context of American industrial and craft unionism and reveals how it came to influence politics and economic development in the city and beyond.

From the start, New York’s organized hotel workers experimented with and adapted how they organized and governed members and related to other labor unions. Richman follows union fortunes from early IWW activity through the Communist-led affiliates of the American Federation of Labor in the 1920s and 1930s, the shaping of breakthrough negotiating strategies, and the postwar era. As Richman shows, workers adopted a radicalism and militancy seldom associated with an AFL organization while openly negotiating the Communist Party’s power and influence within the union, until the Party’s eclipse in the 1950s.

An inspiring story of action and perseverance, We Always Had a Union profiles a foundational American labor union and offers lessons for today’s workers and organizers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252046445
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	04/08/2025
Series:	Working Class in American History
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Shaun Richman teaches labor history at SUNY Empire State University. He is the author of Tell the Bosses We’re Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. The Unsafest Proposition in the World, 1912-1913
2. Bolsheviki Methods, 1913-1918
3. Practical Trade Union Tactics, 1919-1924
4. Strange as It May Seem, 1925-1929
5. Political Sentimental Giddiness, 1929-1934
6. An Industry Has Been Freed, 1934-1938
7. Status Quo, 1938-1939
8. Only the Question of Final Alliances Remains, 1939-1941
9. We Cook, Serve, Work for Victory, 1941-1945
10. In Normal Order, 1945-1947
11. The Crack, 1947-1950
12. Trusteeship, 1950-1953

Afterword

Notes

Sources

Index

Editorial Reviews

Richman has provided the definitive study of the New York hotel workers’ unions. This brilliantly researched study deserves attention from any labor historian or student of the Left. Richman brings long-forgotten unions back to our attention and demonstrates why we must know this history today.”—Erik Loomis, author of A History of America in Ten Strikes

“Richman convincingly shows that New York City was undeniably a union town. In the hotels and restaurants where the ruling class wined, dined, and slept, a large, militant, multiethnic, powerful, Communist-led union vied for dignity and power. This book is a testament to Richman’s dogged research, insights gained from years of experience with unions and politics, and deep knowledge of his hometown.”—Peter Cole, author of Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area

“A fascinating history of a powerful and militant union, We Always Had a Union couldn’t be coming out at a better moment. Richman’s deeply researched study is full of lessons for the new generation of young activists looking today to unionize the service sector and beyond.”—Eric Blanc, author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics

From the Publisher