One thought on “Behind the Scenes at a Five-Star Hotel”

1. Disappointing article, it feels like an advertisement to The Pierre. Whilst I do feel very sad for the massive job loss in the industry, I cannot relate to the article. It’s aiming to make the reader feel sad about some categories of workers and it uses as an example the unionised banquet server; before the pandemic he was the foundation of this country buying stocks and homes, now he has to survive through miserable unemployment benefits.
   I worked internationally in similar hotels and the reason why NY is so behind in terms of service is most likely due to the unions. I’m a strong supporter of unions but in NY they went too far. Among the many parts of the article this one gives a pretty good explanation of what I am saying: “ Every worker at a unionized hotel in the city is given family health insurance and a pension. If a hotel closes, the workers have “recall rights,” meaning that, if it reopens, they are hired back, in order of seniority. Housekeepers working a standard, thirty-five-hour week earn nearly sixty-five thousand dollars a year. Banquet servers, who are the union’s highest-paid members, can make two hundred thousand dollars a year or more. “But nobody gives you nothing for free,” Pasquale De Martino, a banquet server at the Pierre, told me. “Working seventeen to eighteen hours a day is like working two jobs.”

   Now:
   Is it correct that a banquet server earns 200k?
   Is it correct that a person work 17/18 hours?

   The justification that a person that work 17 hours earns these amounts is an insult to many other categories of workers that work probably more, with responsibilities and/or risking their lives earning less than the weekly benefits.
   Additionally that job should be given to two people and not only one; to support employment and to avoid overworking conditions.

   I would have had a totally different approach to the article given the great information the writer was able to gather.