San Francisco

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday granted the National Labor Relations Board’s petition for enforcement of a 2011 decision against owners of a luxury Waikiki hotel, and affirmed an injunctive order against the hotel by a federal district court, also issued in 2011.

The NLRB’s case against the HTH Corporation and the Pacific Beach Hotel dates back to a union organizing drive in 2002, and has involved numerous federal court appearances, two injunctions and a contempt order, in addition to the NLRB processes. 

Whether an employee who honors another union’s picket line is protected by the National Labor Relations Act can be a complicated issue. While under the Act employees have the protected right to engage in strikes, including sympathy strikes, there are potential factors that may deprive them of that protection. These factors may include a no-strike clause in a collective-bargaining agreement, which in certain circumstances may prohibit employees covered by that agreement from engaging in strikes, including sympathy strikes.

The National Labor Relations Board today issued a complaint alleging that 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc. violated federal labor law by insisting that all employment-related disputes be resolved by individual arbitration.

A federal magistrate in Honolulu has recommended that the Pacific Beach Hotel of Waikiki be ordered to pay more than a quarter million dollars to the National Labor Relations Board and to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142, as the latest contempt sanction in a long-running dispute.  

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon announced the appointment of career attorney Jill Coffman as Regional Attorney of the NLRB’s Regional Office in San Francisco, California (Region 20). In her new position, Ms. Coffman will assist Regional Director Joseph F. Frankl in the processing of representation and unfair labor practice cases filed under the National Labor Relations Act in northern California.

A U.S. District Court in Hawai’i has imposed monetary sanctions against a Sheet Metal Workers local union, its principal officer, and its attorney, for violating the Court’s earlier orders growing out of an investigation by the National Labor Relations Board.
Previously, Chief U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway had ordered Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 293's custodian of records to appear for a deposition and produce documents in connection with an investigation by the NLRB’s Honolulu office of allegations relating to the Union’s hiring hall. 

In the latest round of a long-running legal battle over a union organizing campaign, a U.S. District Court has found a Waikiki hotel in civil contempt for failing to comply with an earlier court order to bargain with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 1420. 
The Nov. 29 contempt ruling by U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright (District of Hawaii), comes just a week after the judge granted a second injunction against the hotel at the Board’s request. Judge Seabright issued the first injunction in March, 2010.

A federal judge in Hawaii has granted the NLRB’s motion for civil contempt sanctions against the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local 293, for failing to turn over documents sought by subpoena for more than a year.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has enforced a National Labor Relations Board order finding that Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., an asset manager for investment funds, effectively controlled the management of Hawaii’s Turtle Bay Resort and shared responsibility for unfair labor practices committed by local managers.  

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit this week upheld a federal injunction ordering the Pacific Beach Hotel in Waikiki to recognize the union selected by its employees, bargain in good faith for a labor contract, and reinstate five union leaders who were fired.