Plaza Unionites Hit the Trail
Take the anti-condo show to Tel Aviv.
The campaign to save the Plaza from Elad Properties’ condo-ization has gone global. Last week, as the hotel-workers union picked up endorsements from Woody Allen, Susan Sarandon, and Sarah Jessica Parker (during her 40th-birthday party at the hotel’s Grand Ballroom), its reps were working the media on Elad’s home turf: Tel Aviv. The union sent a doorman, a waiter, and a lawyer (who speaks Hebrew) to get out their message. “The doorman was walking down the street and a guy politely poked him in the chest,” says union rep John Turchiano. “He said, ‘You work at the Plaza! I saw you on TV. We all support you!’ ” The Save the Plaza campaign has cost the union $2 million, $20,000 of which went to fund the Israel mission. “We think it’s weird,” says Elad president Miki Naftali. “We think there’s a better way to spend that money. This is a New York issue. It should be dealt with here.”
—Sarah Bernard

EDITED BY CARL SWANSON

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