Workers’ lawyers say union election was illegal
PICO BLVD. — The establishment of a union at a local hotel late last year is now in jeopardy after a labor relations official determined this month that the employees there might not have had a majority when they elected to unionize.
That’s according to a ruling from National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Arthur Rosenfeld, who recently granted an appeal filed by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, who represent Four Points employees. The appeal stemmed from claims by a handful of employees that they were coerced into unionizing by hotel management and union officials.
Workers claimed labor leaders waged a harassment campaign to force them into the union. They filed formal charges with the labor board in December of last year, but the charges were dropped in February after investigators could-n’t substantiate the claims, said Tony Bisceglia, a NLRB spokesman.
The employees appealed the decision. However, Rosenfeld on Sept. 15 denied the workers’ appeal based on allegations that union officials intimidated, threatened, bribed and promised benefits to employees in an attempt to get them to agree to unionize.
But Rosenfeld did, however, sustain the appeal on the grounds that there are questions surrounding how a majority was recognized in the union election. At issue in the dispute is an organizing method called a “card check” process, when managers agree to let the union in and give them an extended period of time to gather signatures from a majority of employees. Opponents say the process lends itself to abuse by overzealous organizers because it often includes unlawful pre-arrangements over substantive terms and conditions of employment, such as health care, wages or compulsory union dues. Proponents say it’s democratic.
But Kurt Petersen, organizing director for Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Union Local 11, claims Rosenfeld’s ruling is political, spurred by big business interests wanting to decimate unions throughout the country.
“There was no coercion on our part. It didn’t happen and the (charges) were all dismissed,” he said. “There was no question we had a majority... It has nothing to do with what’s going on here, it’s what’s going on in D.C.
“The Bush Administration is changing the rules of the game,” Petersen contend-ed. “(President Bush) wants to take away the card check elections and limit the effectiveness of unions. The Four Points is getting swept up in the movement in D.C., and the workers are suffering for it.”
And while the NLRB’s regional office in Los Angeles ruled that HERE had a majority in last year’s election, Rosenfeld’s office in Washington D.C. has ruled that an administrative law judge should make that determination. The make-up of the NLRB’s board majority in the nation’s capital is determined by which political party is in power, officials said.
As a result, according to Petersen, Rosenfeld ordered a trial regarding allegations that HERE was illegally recognized as the monopoly bargaining representative of the hotel’s staff, despite a lack of majority support. Additionally, the Four Points Hotel faces prosecution for unlawfully assisting HERE union officials in foisting union affiliation on its employees.
Furthermore, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which is representing the Four Points employees, is a right-winged conservative group that represents big business, Petersen said.
“They are out to hurt workers,” he said. “And now the political winds have drifted over to the Four Points Sheraton.”
Foundation representatives dispute that claim and Rosenfeld’s ruling shows that the card check election process has fundamental flaws.
“Union officials knew they could not win a traditional, government-supervised secret ballot election of the employees,” said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “That’s why they resorted to the coercive ‘card check’ process to saddle workers with unwanted union representation.”
The case will now be remanded to the NLRB regional office in Los Angeles for a hearing before an administrative law judge.
“We can try to settle it. If we can’t, it will go to trial,” said Bisceglia, adding that rulings from his office are rarely challenged. “We are known for being quite thorough in our investigations, so our rulings are not often reversed.”
Four Points workers have said they were turned off by aggressive organizing tactics, adding the promises of better wages and reduced workloads don’t hold. Plus, they said they didn’t want to pay the $37 monthly dues. Some told stories of relatives who had bad experiences with unions.
Petersen said the workers agreed to unionize because of the benefits associated with it — like paid lunch hours, increased salaries and reduced workload. He also said workers now enjoy far superior benefits. The labor agreement calls for average wage increases of 20 percent, free health benefits for full-and part-time employees, a pension plan, reduced workloads and paid lunch breaks, among other benefits and protections for Four Points workers, labor organizers have said.
More than half of the upper-end hotel rooms in Santa Monica are in unionized hotels, including those at the Four Points, Viceroy and the Fairmont Miramar Hotel. HERE organizing director Kurt Petersen has said the group is currently campaigning at the Doubletree Guest Suites on Fourth Street. Those still without any union presence are the Doubletree, the Radisson Huntley Hotel, Shutters on the Beach, Le Merigot Beach Hotel, the Holiday Inn Santa Monica Pier and Casa Del Mar.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 27, 2004. Read the original PDF.