Court Backs Firing of 3 New Otani Workers

The National Labor Relations Board has rejected charges that the New Otani Hotel and Garden in downtown Los Angeles illegally fired three housekeepers in 1995 for union-organizing activity.

In a ruling issued June 17, the Washington-based labor board upheld a 1997 decision by an administrative law judge who found no convincing proof that the workers’ pro-union actions constituted a motivating factor in their dismissals.

Representatives of the Little Tokyo hotel have said the three were fired for misconduct. But officers of Local 11 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union have charged that they were improperly dismissed for their role in attempting to organize fellow workers.

Local 11 is engaged in a bitter, nearly 5-year-old organizing drive targeting the 285 hotel and restaurant workers at the New Otani, part of a Tokyo-based chain. Most of the workers are immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

Charles Ecker, a hotel spokesman, called the ruling a major setback for the union.

James Elmendorf, a Local 11 representative, said the decision was disappointing but would not hinder a drive that AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and others have said is in the vanguard of nationwide efforts to organize low-wage immigrant workers.