Last week we told you about the dueling press releases between Dallas-based Remington Hotels, which runs the Anchorage Sheraton, and Unite HERE Local 878, the union that represents the hospitality workers there. The hotel management and the union have been brawling since the union placed a boycott on the Sheraton in November of last year.

The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Remington in late May alleging 13 unfair labor practices, and a hearing is scheduled for next month. But meanwhile, just prior to the July 4 holiday, the local publicist for Remington announced the Sheraton was no longer a union hotel, and that the majority of the workers there had signed a petition saying they didn’t wish to be represented by the union any longer. Unite HERE shot back, saying, yes, the Sheraton is indeed a union hotel.

So Flashlight called Richard Ahearn, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board to clear things up. Turns out it’s not that easy for a business to be decertified as a union shop. The process works like this: Any union member can petition for decertification, and if they get 30 percent of the union members’ signatures on it, the NLRB would hold an election, and a simple majority would decide if the hotel was union or non-union. According to the NLRB, no such petition has been filed for decertification of the Sheraton. But, besides that, says Ahearn, with pending complaints against the hotel management, the NLRB’s standard practice is that decertification would not move forward until the complaints were resolved. The hearing for the complaints is scheduled for August 17, and in an interview in June, Arch Stokes, the attorney representing Remington, told Flashlight the company disputes the complaints and may continue to pursue appeals up to the Supreme Court level.

That could take quite a while, so for now, at least, the Anchorage Sheraton is a union hotel. Don’t believe everything you read in a press release.

bjk@anchoragepress.com