NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans hospitality industry is preparing for a financial blow without Mardi Gras crowds, but Mayor LaToya Cantrell hopes to ease some of the pain.
The city has announced a plan to put some people to work. The Mayor’s Office is looking for temporary contract workers throughout the Mardi Gras holiday as token for those sacrificing not being open.
“We understand the hardship and we understand the burden,” Cantrell said.
The goal is to put money back in the pockets of affected workers. Temporary jobs ranging from handing out masks, picking up trash and promoting COVID-19 mitigation measures are available.
Cantrell said, “We were able to utilize our workforce dollars in a very unique way to pay our people $20 per hour.”
The Mayor’s plan would employ people for five days and while some in the hospitality industry are grateful for the opportunities, they realize how much money they’re going to be losing by not being open.
Sarah Hicks, a bartender at Fahy’s Irish Pub said, “A lot of people are hating on her, but I can’t imagine filling her shoes right now.”
Overall, Hicks is okay with giving up one Mardi Gras, but she’s not optimistic a lot of people will take the Mayor up on the job offer.
“It’s going to be a freezing cold day Fat Tuesday. I wouldn’t want to be passing out masks for whatever amount of money,” Hicks said. “The time I’m working, I’m glad to have this space between me and the customers. As it is, a lot of tourists from all over are here and they’re not being terribly polite about being compliant. I would not want to be out on the street with them.”
Council Member Cyndi Nguyen is encouraged by the plan to get people on the city’s payroll to help out.
“This administration continues to exercise creative ways to keep people safe, but also helping people to get access to opportunity so they can continue to take care of their family,” Nguyen said.
The program will allocate more than $100,000 to hospitality workers affected by the pandemic.
“We value our people, we understand and we value our hospitality workforce,” Cantrell said. “We are prioritizing them even as it relates to vaccinations coming up hopefully in the next week or so. It’s just in line with how we value our people.”
Workers must have the following documents:
• Valid State ID
• Social Security Card (original copy)
• Most recent paycheck stub
• The first 200 eligible workers (including the submission of documents) will be processed and selected
• All workers will be eligible except for people who are currently receiving unemployment benefits
Eligible workers can sign up by visiting the following link: https://MardiGrasWorker.eventbrite.com.
