Union card check campaign targets Long Beach hotels

October 13, 5:48 PMLA Labor Relations ExaminerErick Becker

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For the past year, the union that represents hotel workers in the Los Angeles area (UNITE/HERE Local 11) has been targeting the Long Beach Hilton with a corporate campaign designed to force a neutrality and card check agreement on the hotel. Recently, the union called for a boycott of the hotel, which spurred a counter protest against the union by hotel employees concerned the boycott will harm their job security. Local 11 started a similar corporate campaign recently against the Long Beach Hyatt Regency, part of the union’s “Hope for Housekeepers” campaign targeting Hyatt nationwide. The union held a demonstration and press event to publicize claims of unsafe working conditions.

So far, both the Hilton and Hyatt have resisted the union’s demands for card check recognition, and have instead insisted that employees be allowed to vote by secret ballot in an NLRB conducted election. It is unclear whether a majority of employees at either hotel support the union. Local 11 will likely never agree to allow employees to vote, however. Over the past few years, UNITE/HERE has employed a strategy of organizing exclusively by card check, foregoing NLRB elections.

Many unions have joined UNITE/HERE in abandoning traditional organizing, because they have had increasing difficulty convincing employees to vote “union yes.” The number of NLRB elections has dropped dramatically over the past decade, reflecting this trend. Instead, unions are organizing from the top down by using negative publicity and pressure on the company to compel their agreement to allow unionization without a secret ballot election. Unions have found that getting signatures on authorization cards is nearly automatic once the employer agrees to card check, so it makes better business sense to invest resources in a corporate campaign.

Whether the “card check” bill (Employee Free Choice Act) eventually is signed into law or not, expect the NLRB to further legitimize and foster corporate campaigns and card check organizing once President Obama’s nominees are confirmed.