THE LATEST LABOR CHALLENGES FACING THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

IN THE BUSINESS: THE HOSPITALITY SYMPOSIUM

OGLETREE, DEAKINS, NASH, SMOAK & STEWART, P.C. 3-1

THE LATEST LABOR CHALLENGES

FACING THE HOSPITALITY

INDUSTRY

Charles E. Engeman – Ogletree Deakins (St. Thomas)

Karen M. Morinelli – Ogletree Deakins (Tampa)

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Presenters

Charles E. Engeman (St. Thomas) and Karen M. Morinelli (Tampa)

The Latest Labor Challenges Facing the Hospitality Industry

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Agenda

• Hotel workers on strike

• Union organizing methods

• Labor peace agreements

• “Fight for $15” campaign and other similar tactics

• Handbook policies

• On the horizon from the National Labor Relations Board

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Union Activity in the Hotel Industry

• UNITE-HERE– Targeting the hotel industry

– Targeting tourist areas

• Can be any union– Teamsters

– UFCW

– Service Employees

– Operating Engineers


Sources: BNA & DLR

UNION MEMBERSHIP IN THE U.S.PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL U.S. WORKERS PRIVATELY EMPLOYED

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Union Density in Hotel Industry

In 1983, unions represented 15.4 percent of workers in the hospitality industry, and by 2014, it was 8 percent.


Desperate Times for Unions

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2018 – The Year of the Strike

• This past September, 6,000 hotel workers went on strike against 26 Chicago hotels to demand year-round health coverage for all hotel workers.

• In October, 7,700 workers struck 23 hotels in eight cities, including Boston, Detroit, Honolulu, and San Francisco.


• D. Taylor, the president of UNITE HERE, the union that conducted the hotel strikes, voices dismay that walkouts have grown so rare. “I thought it was important to restore the strike to the arsenal of the labor movement,” Taylor says. “If you’re in a fight against powerful forces, why are you taking tactics off the table?”


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For UNITE HERE, such a multi-city strike against one hotel chain is unusual. The union’s leaders and members recognize that such a strike applies far more pressure than a walkout in just one city. “We’ve never done anything quite like this,” says Singh, the San Francisco leader. “When we stand together and fight together, we make greater gains as a whole. We hope we’re even stronger next time around.”



The results—“[H]ousekeepers in San Diego won raises of 40 percent over four years (to $20 an hour from $14.25), while hotel workers in Boston will receive a 20 percent raise over 4 years, a 37 percent increase in pension contributions, and six weeks of paid maternity leave (and two weeks for spouses).”


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• Provides means for unions to gain representation rights of associates

• Defines lawful and unlawful activities of associates, unions, and employers

• Established National Labor Relations Board to administer and enforce Act

National Labor Relations Act


Section 7 Rights

• Join a union

• Bargain collectively

• Engage in concerted activity

• Equal right NOT TO

– Unless there is a union shop agreement in a collective bargaining agreement requiring membership in the union as a condition of employment

What Does the NLRA Do?

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• One of three ways:

– By an election: a secret ballot vote by employees

– By voluntary recognition by a company: card checks

– By getting a bargaining order:

Union convinces a majority to sign cards

Severe and pervasive unfair labor practices by the company

The Rules – How Do Unions Get to Represent Employees?


• Text and email messages

• Websites

• Hold union meetings at nearby locations

• Employee handbilling in parking lots at shift changes

• Off-shift visits to the facility

• Use of bulletin boards/postings at workstations

• Peer pressure, intimidation

• Concerted activity (brief work stoppages, verbal complaints, group refusal to accept overtime assignments, work to rule)

• Literature in the break areas, breakroom speeches

• Media events

Common Organizing Tactics

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• Walk into the hotel and start talking to housekeepers on guest floors

• Check in as guests

• Pose as visitors (service, repair, vendor)

• Stake out nearby public transit

• Activist groups

In the Hospitality Industry


LEGAL DOCUMENT

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The Union Card Can Be Web-Based!!!


Labor Peace Agreements

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Picketing, Sit-Ins, Projection Bombing


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The Fight for $15: Five Years Later

The History

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• 2009 – SEIU “Manifesto” targeting fast food restaurants in LA

• November 29, 2012 – NYC fast food strikes

• April 24 – May 30, 2013 – Fast food strikes in NYC, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Seattle

• July 29, 2013 – Multi-city fast food strikes

• December 6, 2013 – National fast food strike

• May 15, 2014 – Global strike in 230 cities

• September 4 and December 4, 2014 – U.S. strikes in 150 and 190 cities

• April 15, 2015 – National strike in 200 cities

• 2016-2018 – Periodic national strikes …

The History


The Tools Used by Organized Labor

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Most Visible Workers’ Centers


Before you strike for $15:1. Talk to coworkers you trust and ask them to join you.2. Set the time to meet outside the store on the day of the strike.3. Call everyone you know to support you: friends, family, local social justice organizations, pastors, priests, and politicians and ask them

to come to your strike line.4. Ask at least one of your supporters to walk back into work with you at your next regularly scheduled shift after the strike.

Day of the strike for $15:5. Make signs that say why you are on strike.6. Print out and deliver the “Strike” letter to your manager (everyone who is on strike should sign it).7. Start your strike! Stand outside your store with your supporters and let people know you all are standing up for $15 an hour and the

right to organize a union because low pay is not ok!8. Call the local TV station and newspaper and let them know you are on strike at your store.9. Call or text family and friends who aren’t there yet to come and support you.10. Chant, march, sing and let everyone who is on strike explain why they are there.11. Ask supporters to come with you when you and your coworkers return to work.12. Post pictures of your strike on Facebook at Facebook.com/LowPayIsNotOK and

tweet them to @lowpayisnotok with the hashtag #strikefor15

After the strike for $15:13. Meet up with your supporter who is walking with you to work.14. Go back to work at your next regularly scheduled shift with your head held high.15. Tell your coworkers how it felt to stand up for $15 an hour and the right to form

a union with thousands of other workers across the country!

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Legal Implications


• Employers: Still have to play by the rules

• Protected, concerted activity

– Employee rights – activity for “mutual aid and protection” and intended to advance interests of wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment

– Employer rights – “as if” union activity

Employer Obligations

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• Union playing “outside the lines”

• Limits/restrictions on unions under the LMRDA

– But worker resource centers ≠ labor organizations

– No disclosures and no NLRB oversight

• Employees

– All protections as if activity was traditional union activity

Employee and Union Rights


Other Organizing Tactics

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• Beginning next year, Miami Beach’s hotel housekeepers will be armed.

• Their weapon, panic buttons, will help combat sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, a problem that is being more widely discussed and addressed following the emergence of the #MeToo movement. Beginning August 1, 2019, Miami Beach will be the third tourism town, after Seattle and Chicago, to mandate that hotels provide the devices.

• According to a recent survey by hotel union Unite Here Local 355, 63 percent of the more than 70 Miami Beach hotel workers surveyed said they have been sexually assaulted or harassed while working in guest rooms.


Progress on Handbooks – Boeing

• The Board provided further guidance by establishing three categories for how it will analyze employer rules moving forward:

– “Category 1 will include rules that the Board designates as lawful to maintain, either because (i) the rule, when reasonably interpreted, does not prohibit or interfere with the exercise of NLRA rights; or (ii) the potential adverse impact on protected rights is outweighed by justifications associated with the rule.”

– “Category 2 will include rules that warrant individualized scrutiny in each case as to whether the rule would prohibit or interfere with NLRA rights, and if so, whether any adverse impact on NLRA-protected conduct is outweighed by legitimate justifications.”

– “Category 3 will include rules that the Board will designate as unlawful to maintain because they would prohibit or limit NLRA-protected conduct, and the adverse impact on NLRA rights is not outweighed by justifications associated with the rule.”

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• Protected concerted activity

• Scope of appropriate bargaining units

• Joint employment

• Property rights

On the Horizon From the NLRB

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Presenters

Charles E. Engeman (St. Thomas) and Karen M. Morinelli (Tampa)

The Latest Labor Challenges Facing the Hospitality Industry

Charles E. EngemanShareholder || St. �omas

Mr. Engeman founded our St. �omas o�ce in ��. He is also one of

the co-founders of the firm’s International Practice Group and currently

is the Hospitali� Industry Practice Group Co-Leader. Mr. Engeman

represents many major hotel and resort companies, as well as national

and international companies engaged in retail, financial, commercial,

light and heavy industrial, transportation, and communications.

Mr. Engeman has significant experience representing employers in

National Labor Relations Board proceedings, collective bargaining,

grievances, and arbitrations. He also regularly advises clients in union

avoidance and during organizational and decertification drives. He has

negotiated countless collective bargaining agreements on behalf of

employers with bargaining units ranging from � employees to well over

�,��.

He has handled labor, employment, and general litigation ma�ers for

employers across the United States and in multiple Caribbean

jurisdictions, including (but not limited to) Jamaica, Puerto Rico,

Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, the British

Virgin Islands, and all three of the United States Virgin Islands. �rough

his extensive experience, relationships with local counsel in other

Caribbean islands and with the Employer Organizations in those

islands, Mr. Engeman is able to act as a liaison for U.S. and International

corporations that are doing business or seeking to do business in the

region.

Mr. Engeman is a former United States National Champion in rowing

and represented the United States as a member of the National Team at

the World Rowing Championships and World Universi� Games. Mr.

Engeman also loves sailing and has won the International Rolex Rega�a.

Mr. Engeman is a private pilot and has flown throughout the eastern

United States and the Caribbean.

Education

J.D., cum laude, Universi� of Pennsylvania Law School, ��

Villanova Universi� School of Law, ��

B.A., Ohio Wesleyan Universi�, ��

Admi�ance to Practice

Massachuse�s

Pennsylvania

U.S. Virgin Islands

U.S. District Court, District of Puerto Rico

U.S. District Court, District of Massachuse�s

U.S. District Court, District of the Virgin Islands

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tel:+13407141233

mailto:[email protected]

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U.S. Circuit Court, �ird, Fourth, and Eleventh Circuits

U.S. Supreme Court

Karen M. MorinelliShareholder || Tampa

Karen M. Morinelli is a Shareholder in the Tampa o�ce. As former

General Counsel and Vice President of Human Resources, she brings a

strong business perspective to both client relations and in her approach

to manage client issues.

Ms. Morinelli has managed a corporate legal department and a varie� of

employment related issues in corporate mergers, acquisitions and

divestitures, national class action litigation and managed a successful

appeal to the United States Supreme Court. She is a frequent lecturer for

both state wide and national employer sponsored organizations on a

varie� of current labor and employment topics. Her practice includes

both traditional labor in the public and private sector as well as

employment law.

Ms. Morinelli’s traditional labor practice includes negotiating collective

bargaining agreements including serving as Chief Negotiator for clients

in both the public and private sector. Additionally, she represents

management in ULP’s, grievance and arbitration hearings and advising

clients on preventative strategies with an organized workforce.

Ms. Morinelli also counsels employers in all aspects of labor and

employment law including employer/employee relations, litigation and

alternative dispute resolution. �is includes litigation in both state and

federal courts on ma�ers under Title VII, the ADAAA, the ADEA, the

FMLA, AAP, NLRA, PELRA, FCRA and local fair employment practice

standards.

Ms. Morinelli is recognized by Best Lawyers in America for both

Employment Law – Management and Labor Law – Management and is

AV Preeminent Rated by Martindale-Hubbell. She is a member of the

Academy of Florida Management A�orneys. She earned her J.D. from

Stetson Universi� College of Law cum laude in ��, her M.B.A. from

the Universi� of Notre Dame Graduate School of Business in �� and

her B.A. from LaSalle Universi�, cum laude in ��.

Education

J.D., cum laude, Stetson Universi� College of Law, ��

M.B.A., Universi� of Notre Dame Graduate School of Business, ��

B.A., cum laude, LaSalle Universi�, ��

Admi�ance to Practice

Florida

District of Columbia

U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh and District of Columbia Circuits

U.S. District Court, Middle, Northern and Southern Districts of Florida

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tel:+18132217253

mailto:[email protected]

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U.S. Supreme Court

THE LATEST LABOR CHALLENGES FACING THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

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