Richard Maroko

Biography

Richard Maroko is the recording secretary and general counsel of the Hotel Trades Council, AFL‑CIO, which represents 40,000 workers in the hotel and gaming industries in New York and New Jersey.

During his 18 years with the union, Maroko has distinguished himself as a fierce negotiator and advocate for workers. He has negotiated hundreds of collective bargaining agreements with major hotel and casino chains, including serving as lead counsel for the union’s master New York City contract, valued at more than $2.5 billion per year. He oversees the union’s rapid growth in New Jersey and upstate New York, where the Hotel Trades Council doubled the number of union hotels and secured the first statewide master contract in the hotel industry.

Maroko played a central role in the union’s expansion into the gaming industry, including drafting the 2013 legislation that created new casino licenses in New York State, organizing nearly all operators in the state and negotiating contracts with each of them. He is also a key executive overseeing the union’s political program, which has advanced numerous statutory reforms at the state and municipal levels.

Before joining the Hotel Trades Council in 2002, Maroko practiced labor and employment law in New Jersey and New York, litigating cases before state and federal courts and agencies including the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Division of Human Rights.

Maroko graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers College, earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and later received a master’s degree in labor and employment law, with distinction, from Georgetown University. He was a longtime adjunct professor of labor and employment law at CUNY.

The son of Polish and Brazilian immigrants, Maroko grew up in New Jersey. He lives in Montclair with his wife, Chanon, and is the proud father of three daughters: Maria, Zoe and Isabel.