Labor Board Says Hotel Maids Treated Unfairly

The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint Wednesday alleging unfair labor practices by the Holiday Inns in Burbank and Glendale and by the union that represents about 180 maids and other workers at the hotels.

The complaint contends that the hotels’ owner, Joseph A. Perry, harassed employees who engaged in union activity and threatened to fire some of them.

It also alleges that Local 531 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union discriminated against some of its members and acted in bad faith by entering into an employer-dominated labor agreement with Perry of the type often called a “sweetheart” contract.

Hearing Set Oct. 7

A hearing on the complaint is scheduled Oct. 7 before a labor board administrative law judge.

The complaint stems from charges filed with the board earlier this year by the Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice and by a housekeeper at the Burbank hotel.

Since February, the center has been representing about 30 members of the Glendale hotel’s housekeeping staff, mostly Latino women, who walked off the job. They accused Perry of unfair treatment and their union with failing to represent their interests.

According to attorney Antonio Rodriguez of the center, the housekeepers said they were forced to accept a union they had not chosen and the “sweetheart” contract that reduced their wages, in most cases to $3.40 an hour. Wages previously had ranged up to $4.25 an hour.

Medical Insurance Lost

The contract also did away with medical insurance and other benefits the workers had before they were unionized.

Perry acknowledged Thursday that he had received the complaint but declined to comment on the allegations.

Sam Nuckolls, an organizer for the local, denied that the union had negotiated a sweetheart contract. ‘Nobody likes it,” he said of the contract, described by another union official as a “foot-in-the-door contract.”