Hotel union bankrolls anti-Airbnb candidates

AS IT CONTINUES to do battle with Airbnb, the union representing city hotel and motel workers will spend in the mid-six figures on various City Council races this year, the Daily News has learned.

The Hotel and Motel Trades Council will fund an independent expenditure dubbed Hotel Workers for Stronger Communities to back Council candidates, mainly in competitive primary elections, the union said.

“The Hotel Trades Council fights hard every day to ensure our members receive some of the highest wages and strongest benefits of any unionized workforce in the nation, and we will put that same energy into electing candidates who will fight just as hard for our working families,” the group’s political director Jason Ortiz said.

The union’s most visible political fights of late have been against Airbnb — the home-sharing website that serves as competition for the dollars of the tourists who visit New York City. The union, and an advocacy group largely funded by the union called ShareBetter, say the site perpetuates illegal hotels and contains scores of listings that violate the state’s laws against advertising or renting an entire apartment for fewer than 30 days.

Many of the laws governing Airbnb are at the state level — but that has not stopped City Council from holding often hostile hearings on the company or its members from demanding it turn over data.

Now the union is putting its political muscle — strong enough that the opening of a new health center last week brought out every citywide elected official, including Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo — behind those “strong anti-Airbnb allies” facing primary challenges, as well as supportive candidates seeking to win empty seats.

The union’s spending will boost three incumbents up against serious primary challengers: Laurie Cumbo, who represents Fort Greene, Brooklyn; Carlos Menchaca, who represents Red Hook and Sunset Park in Brooklyn, and Helen Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side, all Democrats.

Cumbo recently tweeted a story about a Share Better hotline to report illegal Airbnb listings, urging people to call. Both Menchaca and Rosenthal are listed as members of the Share Better coalition on its website, and Rosenthal has been especially outspoken in urging Airbnb to turn over data on listings that may violate city laws.

The independent expenditure will also wade into several races where the seat will be open due to term limits, in support of candidates who have already been endorsed by the Hotel Trades Council.

Aid from the group — which will be barred from collaborating with the candidates it supports — will include direct mail and digital ads, which the union deemed “direct mail on steroids” for its ability to target voters with precision. The union will also send members out to the districts in play, which it argued could make a difference in what is expected to be a low-turnout primary.

Airbnb said it had not yet made any decisions about spending in the 2017 city elections.