Firing of 3 on Hotel Staff Upheld

In the latest development in a bitter labor dispute, a judge has rejected charges that the New Otani Hotel and Garden in downtown Los Angeles illegally fired three housekeepers in 1995 because of their involvement with union organizing.

Administrative Law Judge Timothy D. Nelson ruled last week that National Labor Relations Board prosecutors had failed to establish that the workers’ union activities were a “motivating factor” in their dismissals. While finding no unfair labor practices, the judge refrained from characterizing the firings as fair or unfair.

Representatives of the Little Tokyo hotel have maintained that the three were fired not for their pro-union stance but because they violated the company’s prohibition against one employee punching a time card for another--”proxy-punching,” in the judge’s words.

The workers contended that the alleged time-card improprieties were a pretext to get rid of three key operatives for Local 11 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union.

*

Hotel management lauded the decision as a major breakthrough in the more than 4-year-old dispute, which pits the Japanese-owned hotel against an activist union seeking expanded representation among the legions of low-wage immigrant laborers who compose the bulk of the hotel and restaurant work force in the city.

“Local 11 has lost a cornerstone of its campaign,” the hotel said in a statement, adding that the defeat could signal the end of organizing efforts.

But Jennifer Skurnik, staff director for Local 11, said the ruling does not signal a weakening of the union’s resolve. An appeal is planned to the full NLRB in Washington.

“We didn’t start our fight for a union because of a judge’s decision, and we won’t end it because of a judge’s decision,” said Ana Alvarado, one of the three fired housekeepers.

The three employees--Alvarado, Margarita Salinas and Juventina Barajas--each worked at the New Otani for 16 years cleaning rooms before their termination in February 1995. All are seeking reinstatement and back pay.

The New Otani battle has attracted attention among labor activists worldwide as a cutting-edge effort to unionize low-wage immigrant employees in the traditionally hard-to-organize hotel industry. That the New Otani is part of a Japanese-owned chain has heightened interest in the dispute at a time when global corporations increasingly transcend national borders.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney endorsed Local 11’s boycott of the hotel earlier this year and urged a settlement in a meeting with New Otani leadership in Tokyo. Rengo, the Japanese labor federation, last month announced an international boycott of the largely nonunion chain, which includes 19 hotels in Japan, two in the United States, one in Beijing and one in Singapore.