Despite promises of new jobs, San Antonio's unionized hospitality workers come out against Project Marvel

The hospitality and tourism industry employs one in every seven workers in San Antonio.

Despite promises that Project Marvel will generate thousands of jobs, hospitality and service industry union UNITE HERE Local 23 has come out against the proposed downtown sports-and-entertainment district.

The labor group, which represents staffers at the Grand Hyatt convention center hotel and Hyatt Regency River Walk, cautions that its members have heard similar promises before — and been disappointed in the jobs that were actually generated.

Officials with Spurs Sports & Entertainment and the City of San Antonio maintain that the $4 billion-and-still-largely-conceptual Project Marvel will create 3,000 jobs in construction and hospitality. However, UNITE HERE questions the pay and benefits available for workers.

“There are no guarantees about the quality of the hospitality jobs that will be part of Project Marvel,” the local said in a statement to the Current. “Concession workers at stadiums often need to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. If we, as a city, are going to invest millions of dollars into this project, we need to ensure that it doesn’t add to the poverty jobs already available.”

During a town hall hosted early this month by District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, one attendee pressed Spurs General Counsel Bobby Perez to say whether jobs in the team’s proposed new arena, a key component in Project Marvel, would include union positions.

“There will be prevailing market wages paid on this job,” Perez responded to boos and jeers from the crowd.

Low-wage, nonunion city

Around 150,000 of San Antonio’s total jobs are in the hospitality and tourism sector, meaning it employs one in seven workers here, then-Visit San Antonio CEO Marc Anderson said during February’s State of the City address.

Despite tourism being one of the “top four most important segments” in San Antonio’s economy, according to Anderson, the city remains among the nation’s least unionized, according to the San Antonio Report.

What’s more, SA is among the nation’s most-impoverished big cities. Based on current income levels, nearly a quarter of the population struggles to survive, according to U.S. Census data.

Even so, some proponents of Project Marvel and the new Spurs arena project, including Amegy Bank CEO David McGee in an October op-ed in the Express-News, argued that the big-ticket development wasn’t just about creating jobs but attracting investment to the city.

McGee isn’t alone. Trish DeBerry, CEO of downtown-promotion group Centro San Antonio, has also said Project Marvel will attract corporations to San Antonio, creating higher-paying jobs and retaining young, skilled talent.

‘Nothing more than conjecture’

However, Kennesaw State University Professor J.C. Bradbury, an economist who’s extensively studied publicly financed arena deals, told the Current that there’s no evidence to support the claims made by McGee and DeBerry.

“That’s nothing more than conjecture,” Bradbury said. “Economists have studied the impact of new facilities and hosting sports teams on jobs, and they find no effect. None. It’s absolutely been debunked. It’s been studied to death.”

Indeed, Bradbury said young talent usually relocates to where job opportunities are, and that company relocations have little to do with sports and entertainment districts. Rather, corporations are looking for quality of life and a strong pipeline of skilled professionals.

Former Councilman Greg Brockhouse, a two-time populist mayoral candidate, told the Current that projects such as building sidewalks and improving flood prevention would likely have a better chance of attracting high-paying corporate jobs than a new basketball arena.

“Right now in our city, only 59% of our hotel rooms are rented,” Brockhouse said. “We have plenty of inventory and volume. I don’t think we market and sell our city to the extent we should.”

In its statement, UNITE HERE Local 23, urged the city, county and the Spurs to ensure that any jobs created by Project Marvel or the new arena provide a living wage, should the initiative be approved by voters.

“Our community deserves better,” the union said. “We always hear how these projects will bring jobs and business to the city, but the workers that are the backbone of the hospitality industry, who are needed for the success of the industry, are left behind. The City of San Antonio, Bexar County and the Spurs need to make sure these investments help the actual workers that will be making the food and pouring the drinks on game night.”

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Despite promises of new jobs, San Antonio’s unionized hospitality workers come out against Project Marvel

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