Details on Elorza’s tax breaks for existing properties

Mayor Elorza offering tax breaks Candidate Elorza opposed

The Extraordinary Rendition Band played outside City Hall in support of the protest and then lead a march inside, up the stairs and eventually into the City Council chambers. Seven police officers were on the scene.

At the same time the protesters arrived, people were arriving for the Bike the Night with Mayor Elorza event. The STEP protesters were eager to engage with the Mayor about the proposed tax breaks, but Mayor Elorza did not make it to the bike event that bore his name, citing a conflict.

City Council President Luis Aponte told me that the Council is “taking a real hard look” at the proposed tax breaks, noting that there is some affordable housing in the mix of properties under discussion, and these may need to be subsidized. Aponte also said that he’s “not sure” if the tax breaks amount to $3 million, assuring me that the actual number will come out as the City Council examines the proposals.

Sam Bell, executive director of the RI Progressive Democrats of America and STEP member called the proposed tax breaks “corporate welfare.” The tax breaks are to be awarded to a bunch of very well-off people who don’t want to pay their fair share in taxes, says Bell. These properties have already had over a decade of tax breaks, he said, and if they can’t get the numbers to work, they need to go to the banks and refinance. Otherwise, these tax breaks amount to a “bank bailout.”

John Jacobson, who organized the petition delivery, arrived in a Santa suit and called the proposed deal corporate welfare and “crony capitalism.”

“We shouldn’t live in a city where if you have the right last name or are connected you don’t have to pay taxes,” said Jacobson. He spoke to the crowd gathered outside the Counicl chambers for some time, explaining the background of the tax breaks connected developers have come to expect in the city.

The STEP coalition also includes Unite Here Local 217 and organizers  Jenna Karlin and Heather Nichols-Haining attended the protest.

Candidate Elorza told the RIPDA that he was opposed to granting tax breaks to developers that didn’t generate positive revenue for the city. Mayor Elorza has yet to explain why he changed his mind on this issue.

The union vote resulted in 23 workers in favor and 17 opposed to joining the union. With this vote, the Renaissance becomes the third hotel in the city whose workers have organized to join the union.

“I am so proud that we decided to join the union today,” said Raquel Cruz a Renaissance Providence housekeeper. “We are breaking the cycle of racial inequity with higher wages and benefits so that everyone in Providence moves forward.”

Data shows that Union hotels in Providence increase racial equity with higher wages and better benefits. Given the demographics of the hotel workforce in Providence, any increase in wages or benefits would disproportionately benefit women and people of color.

According to the most recent census information, [Census Statistics are from the 2010 American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Housekeeping statistics use the EEO code 4230 “Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners.”] the typical housekeeper in Providence is a Hispanic woman making under $25,000 annually. This workforce earns significantly less than the median income for both white male and female full-time workers (at $52,543 and $44,007 respectively). The most recent Union hotel contract between Unite Here Local 217 and Omni Providence to be negotiated specifies that the lowest wage for housekeepers is $15.96 per hour, which would come out to over $33,000 annually.

Workers rallied with signs with the number 56 crossed out. According to the workers, these signs represent the desire to close the Latina wage gap, where nationally on average, Latinas earn 56 cents to the dollar that white, non-Hispanic males make.

[From a Unite Here! Local 217 press release]

“We are Providence, we want to be heard,” said Raquel Cruz, a housekeeper at the Providence Renaissance. “If this hotel company respects Providence, they will respect us.”

Said Hipolito Rivera, a houseman at the hotel, “We’ve been demanding for years that The Procaccianti Group give us a fair process to decide upon unionization. We call on the hotel to do the right thing. Treat us like equals, not adversaries. Respect us, respect the results of our election and negotiate a fair contract.”

The typical housekeeper in Providence is a Hispanic woman making under $25,000 a year, according to the most recent census information. This workforce earns significantly less than the median income for both white male and female full-time workers (at $52,543 and $44,007 respectively). The most recent union hotel contract to be negotiated by Unite Here Local 217 and Omni Providence specifies that the lowest wage for housekeepers is $15.96 per hour, which would come out to over $33,000 annually.

“I make the hotel lots of money every day.  I should not have to work three jobs just to get by,” said Cruz, “I just want to be able to help my child with their homework.”

Data shows that union hotels in Providence break the cycle of racial inequity with higher wages and better benefits. Given the demographics of the hotel workforce in Providence, any increase in wages or benefits would disproportionately benefit women and people of color.

Workers at the Renaissance are predominantly Dominican. A poster developed by the workers indicating union support showcases the Dominican flag as a background to the photos of dozens of supportive Renaissance workers.

(This post is based on a Unite Here! Local 217 press release.)

Hotel workers at the Providence Hilton and Renaissance hotels in downtown Providence are still working without a contract, and are still experiencing work-related injury and illness at rates 69% higher at the Hilton and 85% higher at the Renaissance Hotel than the national average.

Last night workers rallied at the Providence City Hall entrance used by Providence City Council members to let them know that The Procaccianti Group (TPG), the company that runs both hotels, is literally grinding profits out of the long term health of their employees.

People work so that they can maintain their health and lives, not so that those lives can be used up by greedy corporations that value profit over people. What TPG is doing is deeply immoral, which is why the boycott of all TPG hotels is so important. The utter disregard displayed by the Rhode Island General Assembly towards the plight of these workers and their rights has been sickening, and a stain upon our state.

Mike Araujo, on his way to receive his Progressive Hero award from the RI Progressive Democrats of America for his work with the Restaurant Opportunities Center and the One Fair Wage Coalition, stopped by the hotel workers’ protest to lend his support.

In addition, “workers at Procaccianti hotels suffered injuries resulting in days away from work at a rate nearly four times the national average. The incidence rate for work-related injuries and illness that resulted in days away from work was 42% higher at the Procaccianti hotels than the Omni and Biltmore hotels.”

Workers at The Procaccianti Group are worked harder than their counterparts at unionized hotels. At the Hilton workers are expected to clean anywhere from 17 to 23 rooms in one shift. The work-load per shift is 15 at the Omni and 14 at the Biltmore, where employees are protected by their union.

“My life has changed completely due to my injury and I am unable to work or even walk without the use of a cane,” said Susana Ramirez, a housekeeper at the Hilton for 13 years, in a statement,  “The Procaccianti Group needs to stop hurting us.”

Also speaking at the rally was Providence City Councilor Carmen Castillo, workers’ compensation lawyer Steven Dennis and RI Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (RICOSH) Executive Director Jim Celenza.

After the main section of the rally, workers continued with a candle-lit vigil and passed out copies of the report to people and politicians entering City Hall before the city council meeting.

It was the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid. The location, near Slater Park, is around the corner from two healthcare providers, ARC of Blackstone Valley, which provides services to adults with developmental disabilities and the Pawtucket Center, a Genesis Heath Care skilled nursing facility.

The rally was also just two miles from the Massachusetts border, where home care workers recently won a minimum wage of $15 to be phased in over the next few years. Rhode Island does not pay nearly as much.

SEIU 1199, representing the healthcare workers, released figures showing that at Pawtucket Skilled Nursing & Rehab, the starting rate is $11.75. 63 percent of workers make less than $15. At ARC of Blackstone Valley many direct care staffers earn $10.75 and 94 percent earn less than $15. Meanwhile, two miles up the street, a caregiver could find a job paying $15.

I spoke with two women whose adult, disabled children are cared for at ARC of Blackstone Valley. Both attested to the excellent care their families receive and to the need for paying better wages. The caregivers at ARC are like family, said Pat, whose daughter Rachel has many special care requirements.

Two women who work as personal care attendants in Massachusetts also addressed the rally. Deborah Hahn said, “…if Massachusetts PCAs can win $15, if New York fast food workers can win $15, you can too.”

This event is seen as part of the “expanding #fightfor15 movement” which has been defying expectations and scoring significant wins in recent weeks. The healthcare workers were joined at the rally by a host of labor and community groups, including the AFL-CIO, Unite Here! 217, Jobs with Justice, Fuerza Laboral, NEARI, Teamsters 251, UNAP, UFCW 328, and the RI Progressive Democrats.  State Representatives David Bennett, Mary Duffy Messier and Scott Slater were also on hand.

Michael Sabitoni, business manager for the RI Laborers’ District Council, was perhaps a bit misleading when he rhetorically asked RI NPR reporter Ian Donnis, “Why pick on this one — we didn’t even build yet — when I got 50 percent unemployment in the Building Trades?”

Sabitoni was referring to Unite Here Local 217’s efforts to delay the construction of a proposed hotel on Fountain Street. Building a new hotel would provide much needed jobs to the building trades. The proposed hotel is to be paid for and built by The Procaccianti Group (TPG), a company that runs two hotels in downtown Providence: the Renaissance and the Hilton.

Unite Here Local 217 has been in a fight with TPG for a union, fair wages and a contract for over three years. These two hotels pay the lowest wages, demand the most work, and treat employees worse than any other hotels in Providence.

In short, TPG’s treatment of labor in Providence has been nothing short of disgraceful, and at times has been monstrous.

Short of a strike, one of the most powerful weapon a union has is a boycott. Unite Here Local 217 has called for a boycott of TPG hotels until such a time as TPG begins to sit down and work out a contract with hotel workers that ensures decent wages, decent working conditions and respect.

Geroge Nee, president of the RI AFL-CIO, knows the power of boycotts. In a story Nee tells often, he famously came to Rhode Island in 1971 to help organize a successful lettuce boycott for the United Farm Workers of America.

Boycotts are difficult to enforce. With a boycott you’re asking all those in support of workers to change their buying habits. Sometimes you’re even asking workers, businesses and supporters to suffer economic privation as they avoid purchasing needed commodities.

Boycotts depend on worker solidarity.

Union busters know that strikes and boycotts can be broken as soon as workers become hungry enough. Tactics include waiting out the workers, or playing one set of workers against another. Few people are going to honor a boycott when their kids can’t be fed and their mortgage can’t be paid.

When Sabitoni said to WPRI‘s Dan McGowan, “We cannot wait any longer. We need jobs and we need them now,” he was basically admitting that for his people, the boycott is over. They were too hungry to wait anymore.

Solidarity, like a chain, is only as strong as it’s weakest link.

[I reached out to Nee and Sabotoni for comment, and haven’t heard back from either of them yet, but this post will be updated if they chose to respond.]

Last year, after the General Assembly stole away the power of cities and towns in Rhode Island to set their own minimum wages, Providence City Councillor John Igliozzi told a packed room of disappointed hotel workers that the city was not prohibited from imposing higher minimum wage standards via tax stabilization agreements (TSAs), which are contracts between cities and private industry, and cannot be interfered with by the General Assembly.

Igliozzi said then that all future TSAs should include strong minimum wage requirements and many other worker protections and rights.

Igliozzi is the chair of the Providence City Council Finance Committee, so one would expect that he would follow up on this proposal, but so far, nothing like this has been incorporated into the new TSAs being cooked up in City Hall and expected to be voted on this week.

When Jesse Strecker, executive director of RI Jobs with Justice, testified before the Finance Committee of the Providence City Council, he presented a short list of proposals to ensure that whatever TSAs were adopted would truly benefit not just the investors and owners of billion dollar corporations but also the working people and families of Providence.

Strecker’s list included the following:

1. Provide good, career track jobs for Providence residents most in need by utilizing apprenticeship programs and community workforce agreements, hiring at least 50% of their workforce from the most economically distressed communities of Providence, with a substantial portion of that workforce made up of people facing barriers to employment such as being a single parent or homeless, or having a criminal record, offering job training programs so local residents are equipped with the skills necessary to perform the available jobs and hiring responsible contractors who do not break employment and civil rights law;

2. Pay workers a living wage of at least $15 per hour, provide health benefits and 12 paid sick days per year, and practice fair scheduling: offering full time work to existing employees before hiring new part time employees, letting workers know their schedule two weeks in advance, and providing one hour’s pay for every day that workers are forced to be ‘on call’;

3. For commercial projects, create a certain number of permanent, full-time jobs, or for housing developments, ensure that 20% of all units are sold or rented at the HUD defined affordable level. Or, contribute at an equivalent level to a “Community Benefits Fund,” overseen and directed by community members providing funding to create affordable housing, rehabilitate abandoned properties, or finance other community projects such as brown field remediation; and

4. Present projected job creation numbers before approval of the project, and provide monthly reporting on hiring, wages and benefits paid, and other critical pieces of information, to an enforcement officer, overseen by a Tax Incentive Review Board comprised of members of the public and appointees of the city council and mayor, to make sure companies are complying with their agreements, and be subject to subsidy recapture if they do not follow through.

Mayor Jorge Elorza submitted an amendment mandating that under the new TSAs, “projects over $10 million will be eligible for a 15-year tax stabilization agreement that will see no taxes in the first year, base land tax only in years 2-4, a 5% property tax in year 5 and then a gradual annual increase for the remainder of the term.”

In return, the “agreements include women and minority business enterprise incentives as well as apprenticeship requirements for construction and use of the City’s First Source requirements to encourage employment for Providence residents.”

But that short paragraph above contains few of the proposals suggested by Strecker.

Supporting the Jobs with Justice proposals are just about every community group and workers’ rights organization in Providence, including RI Building and Construction Trades Council, Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), UNITE HERE Local 217, IUPAT Local 195 DC 11, District 1199 SEIU New England, RI Progressive Democrats of America, Teamsters Local 251, Fuerza Laboral / Power of Workers, Environmental Justice League of RI, RI Carpenters Local 94, Restaurant Opportunities Center RI (ROC United), Mount Hope Neighborhood Association, American Friends Service Committee, Occupy Providence, Olneyville Neighborhood Association (ONA), Fossil Free RI, Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), Prosperity for RI, and the Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School Prison Health Interest Group.

Unite Here local 217 has been engaged in a unionization effort at the Providence Renaissance Hotel and Hilton Providence for several years. Both hotels are managed by The Procaccianti Group, who have been relentless in fighting the efforts of employees to receive fair wages and decent treatment.

Subtitled “an independent investor information website posted by Unite Here,” TPG Fails is a compendium of the company’s bad investments, environmental disasters and “wasted opportunities.”

For instance, under “Hotel Failures” the site lists three hotels TPG managed to lose millions of dollars on, resulting in delinquent loan repayments and multi-million dollar defaults.

Under “Costly Cleanups” we learn that “In 2008, The Procaccianti Group discharged its deed of 138 Hamlet Ave. in Woonsocket, RI. The site was built in the early 1900s and was primarily used as a textile manufacturing plant. The Procaccianti Group subsidiary FDS Industries, which stored office and hotel equipment, abandoned the site in 2001. The environmental concerns at this site include a variety of contaminants, including Volatile Organic Compounds, Semi volatile Organic Compounds, Metals, including Hexavalent Chromium, Pesticides, Herbicides, Polychlorinated Biphenyl, Lead, Asbestos, Fluorescent light ballasts, and other solid wastes.” In 2008 Woonsocket was granted $200,000 in EPA funds to clean up the site.

The new website paints an especially grim picture of TPG’s environmental record. “In 2011, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council told Procaccianti subsidiary PBH Realty that it was in violation of six state freshwater wetland laws because of a man made pond PBH had made on a Jamestown property. Chris Powell, who was chairman of the Conservation Commission, said, ‘I chaired the commission for 27 years and these are the most blatant and obvious violations I have ever seen.’ Press accounts [here] and [here] state that after two years, the Coastal Resources Management Council accepted a ‘compromise’ restoration order.”

Wasted opportunities include the boarded up Fogarty Building downtown, and a promised 22 story high rise, “Empire at Broadway” that is today a parking lot.

Every excruciating TPG embarrassment is sourced.

The goal of this website is to pressure TPG to negotiate with the hotel workers in good faith. “UNITE HERE Local 217 is in ongoing labor disputes with two Procaccianti Group hotels in Providence, RI,” says their press release, “Fund managers should do their due diligence before partnering with The Procaccianti Group.”

In a two hour march through downtown Providence, nearly 100 workers and activists visited businesses engaged in wage theft, low pay and anti-unionization efforts. The event was organized through Rhode Island Jobs with Justice in collaboration with Restaurant Opportunities Center of RI (ROC-RI), Fuerza Laboral, Carpenters Local 94, SEIU Rhode Island, UNITE HERE Local 217, Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) and IUPAT Local 195 DC 11 Painters.

The groups are “seeking a city ordinance that would require all companies getting tax breaks in Providence to pay workers a living wage of at least $15/hr, provide paid sick days, health benefits, and fair, predictable schedules.” They also want the city to “follow the First Source ordinance by hiring residents of Providence, prioritize hiring people from high poverty neighborhoods, and make sure that people working these jobs have a pathway to a real career by using apprenticeship programs.”

The groups are also asking Mayor Jorge Elorza to live up to the campaign promises he made while still a candidate at a mayoral forum in South Providence, “to set up a community board with the power to approve/disapprove projects, take back money if companies aren’t living up to what they say they’ll do, and negotiate the construction of projects community members identify as needs, such as affordable housing, or fixing up an abandoned lot into a park.”

The Providence Police Department cleared the streets ahead of the marchers, who started their protest outside of Gourmet Heaven  on Weybosset St. This is the third time protesters gathered outside the restaurant, which is accused of stealing wages from employees here in Rhode Island in a situation similar to Connecticut where substantial fines have been levied against the company for wage theft. Two workers addressed the crowd, and spoke about the abusive working conditions they say they endured. One worker said he was told, when he demanded his pay, that if he complained the management would have him deported.

The marchers then walked a short way up the street to Cilantro restaurant, a chain recently fined by the US Labor Department for wage theft to the tune of $100,000. Oddly, a Cilantro worker met the crowd, offering tortilla chips and bottled drinks, which were refused. “We don’t want your crumbs, we want our money,” quipped Michael Araujo of ROC-RI.

The march then continued across the city to the Providence Hilton Hotel, owned by The Procaccianti Group, where hotel workers were already outside picketing. The two groups merged into a protest of well over 150 people. The workers at the Providence Hilton announced a worker-led boycott of the hotel, joining the boycott efforts of workers at the Renaissance Providence Hotel (also owned by Procaccianti Group.) Employees from the Omni Providence Hotel were also on hand to support the boycott effort.

City Councillor Carmen Castillo spoke to the crowd about her experiences working at the Omni Providence Hotel, which was owned by the Procaccianti Group when it was called the Westin. Since the Procaccianti Group sold the hotel, worker conditions have markedly improved. Also speaking to the crowd was hotel worker Santa Brito.

The protest then headed for the Providence City Hall, stopping along the way at the Subway sandwich shop attached to the skating rink. Here Jo-Ann Gesterling, a fast food worker from Wendy’s, spoke to the crowd. Gesterling has led previous at her store and was arrested last year in Hartford CT during a Fight for $15 protest there. Gesterling talked about the importance of raising the minimum wage to $15, and about the effort to improve working conditions at her restaurant.

The final stop of the march was Providence City Hall, where Malchus Mills of DARE called on Mayor Jorge Elorza to honor his campaign commitments and enforce the First Source ordinance, which prioritizes city hiring from Providence communities. Mills also called upon the City Council to demand fair wages and benefits for workers from companies seeking tax stabilizations from the city. Also speaking at the City Hall was Jeffrey Santos, member of Carpenters Local 94.