In a light rain, Local 878’s president, Marvin Jones, along with fired Sheraton server Gina Tubman, state representative and Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress Harry Crawford, Catholic priest Father Fred Bugarin, Lutheran Bishop Michael Keys and the AFL-CIO’s Alaska president Vince Beltrami, all touted the May 28 NLRB findings. Pins reading, “Sheraton Not Above the Law” were distributed and chants of “Boycott Sheraton” drew honks from cars passing by on Sixth Avenue.
Amongst the NLRB’s findings are: Remington bargained with no apparent intention of reaching an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement (the previous one expired in February 2009); Remington refused to meet at reasonable times and/or places for bargaining; Remington denigrated the union in the eyes of its employees; Remington implemented a bargaining proposal without notifying appropriate agencies of a dispute between it and the union, and changed terms and conditions of employment without first providing the union notice or an opportunity to bargain; management increased the number of rooms the employees were expected to clean and ceased paying for meal breaks; management suspended nine employees engaged in protected union activities, eventually firing four of them for passing out fliers at the hotel’s doors; and the Sheraton’s general manager, Denis Artiles, told employees the proposal management implemented was meant to “screw” the union.
 |
To the uninitiated, this sounds cut-and-dry. In all, the NLRB investigation accuses Remington and Sheraton’s managers of 13 violations of labor law. But its findings and remedies are not binding. There will be a hearing on August 10 in front of an administrative law judge of the NLRB. And it may not end there either.
Remington’s attorney in the matter, Arch Stokes—well known for his work against unions—was the only Remington representative other than local public relations spokeswoman Kathy Day who would speak on the matter.
This is how Stokes characterized the process about to unfold: “[The] administrative law judge will take testimony and issue a recommendation, and that recommendation, whatever it is, will be subject to review by the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. That review by them is subject to review by the U.S. Court of Appeals, then that review is subject to a discretionary review by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Stokes says Remington disputes all of the NLRB’s May 28 findings.
Meanwhile, Remington’s decision to fight the charges means none of the recommended remedies need put in place, and Jones, the union president, says his members continue to be harassed by Sheraton management.
“Time is of the essence,” Jones says. “How long can people endure this type of treatment? When management has an employee for eight hours a day, has their ear, and hits them all day long with the same thing, then calls them at home, at some point people have a breaking point. It’s a form of terrorism.”
In early June the National Women’s Leadership Summit was scheduled to take place over three days at the Sheraton. Shortly before the start of the conference—which featured Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), along with journalist Lisa Ling—its location was changed to the Marriott and the Dena’ina Center.
In a letter released by Kathy Day, Remington’s locally hired public relations representative, the Summit’s sponsor, the Louisiana Center for Women & Government, tells Sheraton general manager Denis Artiles that panelists and speakers received threatening phone calls from a labor representative. The union says there were no threats, only notification that the union would demonstrate against the Summit being held there.
Day also distributed a press release (available online at sheratonanc.wordpress.com, along with the National Women’s Leadership letter), alleging Artiles received death threats over a four-hour period on Wednesday, June 2, and that eggs were thrown on his door. The release states that Anchorage Police were called, and that a new complaint was filed with the NLRB because of the death threats.
Lieutenant Dave Parker, APD’s spokesman, says the department had no reports of threats against Denis Artiles on either June 2 or June 3; Day counters that APD wouldn’t file a formal complaint without knowing who was threatening Artiles.
Ahearn confirmed that Remington filed a charge against Unite HERE Local 878 on Tuesday afternoon, the day after the press release announcing it was released.
The death threat accusations have Jones, the union president, incensed. “If you say you charged a file regarding death threats against the union to the NLRB, you’re saying it’s the union, because if it wasn’t the union the NLRB couldn’t do anything,” he says. “Basically you’re saying I’m doing it as head of the local; I’m calling in the death threats.”
“Finally you get a decision on this, but this is jut the tip of the iceberg,” Jones says. It appears he’s right: Stokes, Remington’s attorney, sounds prepared to appeal any decisions against the Sheraton management as far as the law allows.
Jones and his members do have one near-term remedy, though—a temporary injunction against Remington, known as a 10(j) because of the section of the National Labor Relations Act in which it’s codified. In a 2002 memorandum, Arthur Rosenfeld, general counsel for the NLRB, states, “the regional offices should consider the propriety of interim injunctive relief in every case,” and later notes that “the strength of the alleged violations” should be a factor in determining whether a 10(j) injunction is appropriate.
“We’d like an immediate injunction that they have to comply with immediately,” Jones says. “Those aren’t something that are easily given out, but we hope because there are 13 charges [the NLRB] thought these guys are wrong on, that these are egregious acts and we can’t continue to see people suffer. We need to impose an injunction before these people continue to suffer.”
bjk@anchoragepress.com
Comments
dario wrote on Jun 12, 2010 1:07 AM: