Jesse Strecker, center, and Alex Campbell, right, greet workers as they arrive for a rally Thursday at Providence City Hall sponsored by RI Jobs for Justice.

The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — Taking the first of two required votes, the City Council on Thursday night unanimously approved an ordinance requiring the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, the Rhode Island Convention Center, Veterans Memorial Auditorium, and three hotels to retain employees for up to six months following a change in management.

The ordinance would affect hotel and food service employees who work at least 10 hours per week and earn less than $60,000 a year at the Westin, Renaissance, and Hilton hotels and the convention-center complex.

It allows, after six months, for a new owner or manager to continue employment under new terms or to release the workers.

Councilman Michael A. Solomon, the lead sponsor of the ordinance, says its purpose is to bring “some level of stability” to the city work force. “We’re trying to keep people working,” he said. “For some of these people, they’ve been with these hotels since they opened. This is all they know.”

Local 217 of Unite Here, the union representing hotel and convention center workers, says that the ordinance is the first attempt by a city to address hospitality workers’ rights following the uproar in Boston last month after three Hyatt hotels laid off their housekeeping staff.

Over the summer, the Hyatt hotels had the housekeepers train new workers, only to have the trainees, who worked for a Georgia employment agency, take their jobs.

“We’re going to keep fighting and we’re not going to let what happened in Boston happen here,” Carmen Castillo, a housekeeper at the Westin, said at a rally in City Hall prior to the council vote.

Councilman David Igliozzi argued that the ordinance should include all city hotels, but a proposed amendment was withdrawn. “This is going to happen at every one of the city’s hotels. We should do this right,” he said.

The council approved the measure despite opposition from the Convention Center Authority and the state association representing hotels.

Dale J. Venturini, president of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association, said that the city’s attempt to “dictate private industry” will be another black eye to the state’s business community.

She says the city hotel industry has been battered by the drastic reduction in corporate travel for conventions. From July 2008 to July 2009, city revenue from the 1 percent hotel tax has dropped nearly 11 percent, she said.

“We’re not in support of it because it singles out one industry to guarantee employment,” said Venturini. “In this economy, I don’t know of anyone who is guaranteed a job anymore.”

James McCarvill, executive director of the Convention Center Authority, questioned the city’s authority to impose regulations on a state agency. He was also concerned that the ordinance will make it harder for the authority to negotiate new contracts for food vendors at The Dunk and for management of the convention center.

Solomon maintained that the city is within its jurisdiction since the hotels and convention center buildings currently receive, or did receive public money, including city tax breaks.

Solomon pointed out that similar work-force requirements have been imposed by in Los Angeles and Oakland. And he disagreed that the ordinance would hurt the local hospitality industry.

“We’re not going to put the hotels out of business,” Solomon said. “All we’re talking about is six months.”

pmarcelo@projo.com