New Hotel Pits Labor Groups Against One Another
Public hearing on second proposed Deer District hotel centers on union battle at first one.
The Moxy Milwaukee Deer District hotel. Rendering by Gary Brink & Associates.
Monday’s City Plan Commission hearing was ostensibly about the design of a new Deer District hotel, which would be the second in the district, but much of the debate actually centered on the workers at the first Deer District hotel.
A contentious union organizing drive at the four-star The Trade hotel, 420 W. Juneau Ave., is currently held up by a disputed election and two open National Labor Relations Board cases. But hotel developer NCG Hospitality is moving forward on a second hotel near Fiserv Forum and is pursuing the development of a seven-story, 156-room Moxy hotel at 430 W. State St. A zoning change is required to enable the three-star hotel’s development, which the commission endorsed after a lengthy hearing.
“We are requesting the commission hold the file here until issues around land use and labor issues are resolved,” said Peter Rickman, president of Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH), which has organized workers at Fiserv Forum and several other downtown locations. Rickman and other speakers, including MASH members and retired Milwaukee Area Technical College economics professor Michael Rosen, argued that the new hotel was only a “modest hotel” where a full-service, larger hotel is warranted and the plan to rely on shared parking with the Milwaukee Bucks-owned parking structure at 1030 N. 6th St. won’t work because MATC students and event attendees also rely on the garage. They also had plenty to say about the state of a unionization drive at The Trade.
A hotel employee pushing for unionization at The Trade, Justin Otto, said he’s been put into purgatory for his role. “Due to my role organizing the union, they’ve stopped scheduling me,” said Otto. He accused NCG of improperly distributing tips to salaried employees, tearing down posted union information and other acts to suppress the unionization effort.
“Some of us still remember when it was like working at the old arena without a union fighting for us,” said another MASH representative of conditions at the now-demolished Bradley Center, atop a portion of which the new hotel would be built. She said NCG wasn’t abiding by a labor peace agreement negotiated as part of Fiserv Forum’s development. “I hope the commission will ask detailed and uncomfortable questions toward the company management about this issue.”
But other unions supported the new hotel. Lining up in support of the project and the construction jobs it would create were the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 494, Milwaukee Building Trades Council and Building Advantage and the International Order of Operating Engineers. Those who spoke in favor included labor leaders Chris Mambu Rasch and Dan Bukiewicz.
NCG chief development operator Andy Inman said the company is a good employer. “We are immensely proud of the work of our team,” he told the commission.
“There were a a lot of misstatements that you heard and I won’t go into those because I don’t think they’re germane to the issue at hand,” said Inman after many of the union members had spoken.
The commission, including members Allyson Nemec and Stephanie Bloomingdale, did push him to provide the organization’s labor plans for the latest hotel, but Inman spoke only to union labor being involved with construction. “We would intend to continue to work with the local labor unions, trade unions, to build The Moxy,” he said.
The project, because of its location in the Deer District development, will be subject to the city’s Residents Preference Program that requires 40% of all project work hours to be completed by unemployed or underemployed city residents.
But Bloomingdale, the commission chair and president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, pushed Inman to address what NCG would do with its permanent employees.
“We are extremely humbled and proud of our team members and what they do every day for us,” said Inman. “We have extremely high retention of our team members and very high engagement… as far as what our intent is, to keep doing that.”
Before the public comment period began, assistant city attorney Joseph Dobbs told the commission that its ability to render a decision was limited to land use factors. But Rickman disputed a statute cited by Dobbs and said it only applied to issues involving a bargaining unit.
Department of City Development planning manager Sam Leichtling said the city is supportive of the plan as it complies with the general planned development conceptual design plan that covers the area around Fiserv Forum. Bucks outside attorney Bruce Block also opined that the design complies with the 2016 plan. “This is a permitted use,” he told the commission.
Bucks President Peter Feigin downplayed concerns about parking. “It sounds like a large problem,” he said, but noted that at peak capacity, the hotel would require only 75 of the 600 spaces in the parking structure and that there were thousands of parking spaces within a quarter mile of the arena.
Ultimately, the commission unanimously endorsed the proposal, but Bloomingdale issued a parting message to the development team.
“We wish you good luck with the project and all that comes with it, and encourage you to support the full participation of every worker who wants to join together in a union in totality,” said the commission chair.
The Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee will review the proposal at a future meeting.
The new hotel would be built immediately south of FPC Live‘s new concert venue, the developers of which proactively entered into a labor agreement. In addition to the concert venue and hotel, the Bradley Center site would be able to support multiple other development projects. Feigin said the team has no immediate plans, but is likely to pursue a mixed-use, residential development for a portion of the site.
Renderings
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Another hotel, huh. Does anyone remember the good old days, when we had Church’s Chicken, McDonalds, and the Mint bar there? And a surface parking lot that only charged $5 (all day) to park?