A dispute over hiring practices at a soon-to-open Long Island City hotel erupted into a vicious melee between staffers and one well-known community leader.
Bishop Mitchell Taylor, the senior pastor at Center of Hope International, appeared to spark the brouhaha last week when he marched into the lobby of a soon-to-open hotel on 12th St. and aggressively confronted the owner about his commitment to hiring workers from the nearby Queensbridge Houses.
Taylor said he was steamed that the 150-room Howard Johnson franchise, owned by Wuhan, China-based Mayflower International Hotels, has refused to provide guarantees it will hire neighborhood residents.
Hotel managers responded that anybody was welcome to apply for a job.
Security footage from the Aug. 8 incident, obtained from the hotel, shows Taylor, who runs a prominent nonprofit and is a member of the NYPD Civilian Complaint Review Board, walking into the hotel lobby and aggressively confronting the owner, Xiao Zhuang Ge, whose company built the hotel and plans to open it within the month.
Taylor says he called Xiao a liar.
The Bishop was then seen shoving a worker who had confronted him into the hotel’s glass window.
“At that split moment, the Queensbridge came out of me,” said Taylor, who used to live in the NYCHA complex and whose organization, Urban Upbound, helps its residents find employment, apply to college, open bank accounts and obtain loans. “It was like, ‘Don’t get in my face,’ like that.”
The worker then took a swing at him, Taylor said, though it was difficult to follow on the recording because several others were clustered around them.
The group spilled outside and as the fight continued, Taylor can be seen getting chased from the hotel by workers. One of them launched into him with a kick, and Taylor grabbed a pick-axe, which happened to be on the ground at the construction site, and waved it at the workers, though he was holding it upside down.
“They were getting ready to surround me,” Taylor said, “and they didn’t only because there were about four or five guys from the neighborhood that came up and stopped it.”
Taylor, who said he didn’t start the fight, later filed a harassment complaint against Qijun Zhu, 37, saying the worker had slapped him in the face.
Qijun in turn filed an assault complaint, accusing Taylor of pushing him against a window.
Police said they were investigating the matter.
Representatives from the hotel said they felt like Taylor had continuously tried to bully them.
“Anybody who is qualified should have a right to work,” said one hotel manager, who asked that her name be withheld for fear of retribution.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re living in Queens, New Jersey or Long Island,” she added. “America gives everybody opportunities.”
But Taylor, who has organized a protest Friday that is slated to include City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and a staffer from Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s office, says the hotel has a moral imperative to hire workers from the Queensbridge Houses.
“It’s a travesty to build a hotel in this community and not have any intentions of hiring from this community,” said Taylor. “The job disparity in our neighborhood, in all public housing neighborhoods is very high.”
Hotel managers complained that the officials never contacted them to get their side of the story.
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With Rocco Parascandola
