Federal judge orders Missouri hotel to recognize union and rehire two employees

An extended stay hotel that refused to negotiate with the union that represents its workers, fired its two union employees, and contracted out their work was ordered by a federal judge to offer reinstatement to the workers and recognize and bargain with their union.
In granting the National Labor Relations Board’s petition for a temporary injunction, U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry wrote that immediate action was needed to “prevent frustration of the basic remedial purposes” of the National Labor Relations Act. “Here respondent completely eliminated the bargaining unit and replaced the union workers with non-union members after flat-out refusing to negotiate with the union,” the judge wrote. “This activity goes to the very heart of what the NLRA was enacted to protect.”
Owners of the Northwest Airport Inn in St. Ann, Missouri were ordered to rescind their contract with a temporary employment agency, recognize and bargain with the union on request, and offer immediate reinstatement to the two employees who were fired.
The union, UNITE HERE Local 74, filed a charge with the NLRB Regional Office in St. Louis in May 2012. Following an investigation, a complaint was issued in July. The case was recently heard by an NLRB Administrative Law Judge and is awaiting a decision. The injunction will remain in effect until the case is resolved at the NLRB.