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National Labor Relations Board finds overwhelming merit to federal charges brought against Sheraton Anchorage

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For Immediate Release
April 30, 2013

On April 24, 2013, the three-person Board that governs the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the agency that enforces the National Labor Relations Act, the federal labor law that governs most private-sector workers, issued its Decision and Order in a federal case brought by that agency against Texas-based Remington Lodging & Hospitality (“Remington”), the corporation that operates the Sheraton Hotel & Spa in Anchorage. The case stems from a long-running dispute between the Sheraton and its workers’ union, UNITE HERE Local 878.

In its ruling, the NLRB found that that Remington has committed numerous unfair labor practices against both the union and its workers, including (but not limited to) (1) in October of 2009, unlawfully imposing new requirements that housekeepers clean 17 rooms per shift, that employees clock in and out for lunch, and that employees who eat the food prepared in the cafeteria pay $1 for the meal; (2) in May of 2010, unlawfully taking away from the workers the Union health benefits plan; (3) unlawfully firing four workers and unlawfully disciplining many others for engaging in activities in support of their union; (4) maintaining and enforcing eight unlawful rules in its employee handbook; and (5) unlawfully withdrawing recognition from the Union as the bargaining representative of the workers based on signatures on a petition that Remington unlawfully obtained through threats and promises.

Remington now has to make all of the workers whole for all wages, benefits, and health care costs they lost or incurred as a result of these unlawful acts, plus interest, and (upon the Union’s request) return to the bargaining table and negotiate a new labor agreement with the Union.

Since 2009, Sheraton workers have been struggling to protect their benefits, their working conditions and their union from the employer’s egregious assaults.  To date, this high-profile labor dispute has been marked by the filing of over 40 unfair labor practice charges, two lengthy NLRB hearings (the first one of which has just resulted in the Decision and Order discussed above), with a third hearing scheduled for mid-July, two meritless federal lawsuits filed by the hotel (one against the Union, one against the NLRB itself), an ongoing boycott, frequent picket lines and an overwhelming amount of Anchorage community support. While workers are pleased with this new Board ruling in their favor, they want to remind the public that their struggle is not over and that they continue to ask the community to boycott the Sheraton until the dispute is resolved.

A copy of the complete text of the Decision and Order in this case, Remington Lodging & Hospitality, LLC, d/b/a The Sheraton Anchorage v. UNITE HERE! Local 878, AFL-CIO, 359 NLRB No. 95 (2013), can be found on-line at http://www.nlrb.gov/cases-decisions/board-decisions.

Sheraton workers demand NO MORE APPEALS!!

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Anchorage Sheraton workers and Community supporters delivered a petition to Anchorage Sheraton Management, insisting the Texas-based Corporation Ashford/Remington who owns/manages the hotel to stop appealing NLRB court rulings  ‘on behalf of Anchorage workers’.

Sheraton continues its anti-union campaign – Alaska Daily News

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In 2006, Texas-based Ashford Hospitality acquired the 370-room downtown Sheraton Anchorage Hotel. Ashford has paired up with its hotel management company, Remington Hospitality Services, to carry out a brutal anti-union campaign that is singularly out of step with the history of cooperation between the hotel owners and workers who have built our successful tourism industry in Alaska.

Ashford/Remington’s assault on Sheraton workers and their union began in late 2009 after the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against the Sheraton alleging bad faith bargaining. This first charge marked the beginning of the workers’ efforts to defend themselves against Ashford/Remington’s attempts to break their union and to compromise their job standards. Workers rallied to support each other against intimidation and retaliation and to speak out in opposition to management’s attacks against their union.

As an organized committee of dedicated employee activists grew inside the hotel, the workers’ actions became more visible. They began to conduct protests inside and outside the workplace; they picketed, they rallied, and an overwhelming majority of them signed a petition to declare that they were going to start asking the public to boycott their hotel.

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Judge throws out Anchorage hotel’s union lawsuit – Washington Examiner

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A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit over a boycott of a downtown Anchorage hotel after finding union activities that cost the hotel operator hundreds of thousands of dollars are protected by federal law.

The operator of the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel & Spa alleged in its lawsuit that the union’s call to boycott was damaging to the hotel and could be perceived as a threat to the safety to potential clients and guests.

But U.S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland ruled last week that the union’s actions are protected either by the U.S. Constitution or the National Labor Relations Act.

“The remarks to potential guests about having to cross picket lines cannot possibly be perceived as threats,” the judge said.

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