PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Mark Bellamy, House Person at Margaritaville NYC
2:36:32
·
77 sec
Mark Bellamy, a house person at Margaritaville NYC, testified in support of the Safe Hotels Act. He shared his personal experience transitioning from a subcontractor to a direct hotel employee, emphasizing that workers did not lose their jobs when subcontractors left due to the city's worker retention law.
- Bellamy's hourly wage increased from $17 to $23 after becoming a direct hotel employee
- He described subcontractors as "middle men" who took a cut of potential wages and overworked employees
- Bellamy refuted claims that the Safe Hotels Act would cause job losses for subcontract workers
Mark Bellamy
2:36:32
Good afternoon.
2:36:33
My name is Mark Bellamy.
2:36:35
I currently work as a house person at the Margarito Resort in Times Square.
2:36:39
Many hotels and their lobbyists have been telling subcontract workers that they will lose their jobs if the safe hotels act as passed.
2:36:47
This is a lie.
2:36:49
I know because I lived through this.
2:36:51
I used to work for a subcontractor agency at the Margaritaville.
2:36:55
But today, I worked directly for the hotel.
2:36:57
When I was a subcontractor worker, I was paid just 17 per hour.
2:37:02
The work was hard, and we often have to stay late to unpaid to finish it.
2:37:07
When the subconscious left our our hotel, we did not lose our jobs because the city workers retention law kicked in.
2:37:15
Let me repeat that for the folks in the back.
2:37:18
When the subcontractors left our hotel, we did not lose our jobs.
2:37:24
In fact, the hotel started paying us more 23 per hour.
2:37:29
That's a big increase.
2:37:30
It was a great day when the subcontracting agency left our hotel.
2:37:34
The subcontractor was a middle man.
2:37:37
They took a cut of the money that the hotel could have been paying us.
2:37:41
And then they squeezed every ounce of labor out of us to profit as much as possible.
2:37:47
Please pass the safe hotel's ad.
