AH&LA and AAHOA Sue City of Los Angeles over Hotel-only Wage Ordinance that Exceeds City Authority
(December 16, 2014) The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) filed a lawsuit today against the City of Los Angeles challenging a recent hotel-only wage ordinance that attempts to exercise power beyond the limits of the City’s authority.
AH&LA was compelled to take this action because the City’s Ordinance blatantly discriminates against our industry, disrupts decades of established federal labor law by putting a thumb on the scale in favor of unionization and sets a dangerous precedent by giving unions new tools to gain an advantage in collective bargaining. The suit was filed jointly with the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), along with a dozen affiants including both union and non-union hotels.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the federal United States District Court for the Central District of California, seeks to invalidate the Los Angeles ordinance and prevent the City from enforcing its provisions on the grounds that it disrupts the relationship between labor and employers established by the United States Congress.
“For over 50 years, there has been consensus that a single set of rules governing labor relations is good for the long-term best interests of management, unions and workers,” said Katherine Lugar, president and CEO of AH&LA, during a press conference in Los Angeles. “However, the City’s ordinance is clearly designed to put a thumb on the scale in favor of labor and disrupts the careful balance between labor and management.”
“Our workers are the backbone of every hotel. We are proud of the opportunities we provide to the hard-working men and women in the hotel sector that enable countless individuals to climb the ladder of opportunity and build life-long careers. We are prepared to work with local officials on a fair, balanced and across-the-board increase but we cannot – and will not — stand by when recent actions by the City Council single out hotels.”
The L.A. ordinance includes a so-called “exemption for collective bargaining agreement” that, in reality, empowers unions to waive any part of the new ordinance for any hotel they cover through a collective bargaining agreement. This ability provides unions with dramatically increased leverage to extract concessions from hotel management and to pressure non-union hotels to accept unionization without a vote of the workers of that hotel. This violates fundamental precepts of U.S. labor law and policy.
The suit outlines how the ordinance shifts power in favor of unions seeking to expand their influence in a manner that is inconsistent with the federally established regulation between labor and management. Because those relations cannot be changed at the local level, the ordinance should be invalidated and struck down by the courts.
“The City of Los Angeles is being pulled into taking sides between unions and hotels,” said Chip Rogers, interim president of AAHOA. “The City Council doesn’t have the authority to rewrite federal labor law, and this ordinance effectively gives unions the ability to pick and choose when and where the provisions of this ordinance will be enforced. That’s not right.”
The lawsuit is American Hotel & Lodging Association and Asian American Hotel Owners Association v. City of Los Angeles. AH&LA and AAHOA are represented by the law firm Holland & Knight.