CP Anchorage Hotel 2, LLC v. NLRB

98 F.4th 314
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedApril 9, 2024
Docket23-1029
StatusPublished

This text of 98 F.4th 314 (CP Anchorage Hotel 2, LLC v. NLRB) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
CP Anchorage Hotel 2, LLC v. NLRB, 98 F.4th 314 (D.C. Cir. 2024).

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

Argued January 12, 2024 Decided April 9, 2024

No. 23-1029

CP ANCHORAGE HOTEL 2, LLC, D/B/A HILTON ANCHORAGE, PETITIONER

v.

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, RESPONDENT

Consolidated with 23-1039

On Petition for Review and Cross-Application for Enforcement of an Order of the National Labor Relations Board

Maurice Baskin argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs was Emily Carapella.

Kellie Isbell, Attorney, National Labor Relations Board, argued the cause for respondent. With her on the brief were Jennifer A. Abruzzo, General Counsel, Peter Sung Ohr, Deputy General Counsel, Ruth E. Burdick, Deputy Associate General Counsel, David Habenstreit, Assistant General Counsel, Milakshmi V. Rajapakse, Supervisory Attorney, and Jared D. Cantor, Senior Attorney. 2

Before: KATSAS and GARCIA, Circuit Judges, and EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge.

Opinion for the Court filed by Senior Circuit Judge EDWARDS.

EDWARDS, Senior Circuit Judge: This case involves an unfair labor practice charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board (“Board” or “NLRB”) by Unite Here! Local 878, AFL-CIO (“Union”), charging CP Anchorage Hotel 2, LLC d/b/a Hilton Anchorage (“Company”) with violations of the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”). The Union represents the hotel’s housekeepers for purposes of collective bargaining. The dispute between the Company and Union arose in 2018, when the Company substantially renovated the hotel, including replacing the old bathtub showers in about half of the hotel guest rooms with walk-in, glass-walled showers. After the renovations were largely complete, the Company unilaterally required the housekeepers to meet the same room- cleaning work quotas that were in place before the renovations, even though the housekeepers claimed that the rooms were harder to clean and involved different work skills and equipment. The Company also threatened to discipline housekeepers for failing to meet the more difficult room- cleaning quotas.

The Union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Board challenging the unilateral actions taken by the Company insofar as the actions affected bargaining unit employees. The Board’s General Counsel issued a Complaint, charging the Company with violating Sections 8(a)(1) and 8(a)(5) of the Act. See 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1), (5). After a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”), the Board found that the Company had committed unfair labor practices by: (1) failing 3 to provide the Union with requested information relevant to bargaining; (2) unilaterally changing its housekeepers’ duties when it increased the work required per room but maintained the same room-cleaning quota; and (3) threatening its housekeepers with discipline if they failed to comply with the increased workload requirements. See CP Anchorage Hotel 2, 371 N.L.R.B. No. 151, at *3 (Sept. 29, 2022) (“Board Decision”). The Board ordered the Company to rescind the unlawful changes to the housekeepers’ working conditions to the full degree practicable and to make the housekeepers whole for any loss of earnings from the Company’s unlawful conduct. Id. at *10.

In its petition for review to this court, the Company’s principal claim is that “decisions like the renovation decision at issue here do not require bargaining with a union.” Brief (“Br.”) of Petitioner 12. But on the facts of this case, the Company had an obligation to give the Union at least a meaningful opportunity to bargain, regardless of whether the changes to the housekeepers’ duties were better thought of as a separate decision regarding the conditions of employment or as merely the effect of a business decision about what kinds of rooms to offer hotel customers. A more apt summary of this case is found in the brief submitted on behalf of the Board:

Although the Company had no obligation to bargain with the Union over its choice to renovate the hotel, it had an obligation to provide information to the Union about the renovations—so that the Union could evaluate possible impacts on its members—and to bargain over increases in employee workloads following the renovations. Substantial evidence supports the Board’s findings that the Company failed to meet these obligations, thus violating the Act, and then committed a further unfair labor practice by threatening employees 4 with discipline for failing to comply with their unilaterally increased workloads.

Br. for the NLRB 14. We agree. Accordingly, we deny the petition for review and grant the Board’s cross-application for enforcement of its order.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

The Company operates a full-service hotel in Anchorage, Alaska. The hotel consists of about 600 rooms across two towers, the Anchorage Tower and the West Tower. During the relevant period, the Union represented a bargaining unit that included housekeepers, housepersons, and housekeeping inspectors. Since 2016, the housekeepers have been required to clean a quota of 17 rooms per eight-hour shift, with a few exceptions, depending on the types of rooms and how far the housekeepers have to travel within the hotel to clean them. Housekeepers exceeding the quota receive a bonus of $4.95 per extra room cleaned.

On February 26, 2018, the Company began renovations to the hotel. Among the changes, the Company replaced the showers in about 300 rooms, or around half of the hotel’s guest rooms. The old showers were comprised of bathtubs with fabric shower curtains and inner liners, whereas the new showers were walk-in with glass doors. The Company also added new furniture to the rooms. Sofa beds, previously an amenity found only in suites, were added to more rooms, including most rooms with king-sized beds in the West Tower. In addition, the Company replaced all pillows with new ones that were heavier 5 and longer, and added an extra pillow for each double-sized bed.

As a result of these changes, the renovated rooms posed cleaning duties that differed from the cleaning work involved in the unrenovated rooms. To clean the old showers, housekeepers sprayed the bathtub curtains and liners with a cleaning solution and then wiped them. If a curtain or liner was dirty, a housekeeper would tie it in a knot and a houseperson would replace it. In contrast, housekeepers must keep the new glass-walled showers streak-free by removing smudges and water marks. To achieve this, housekeepers use squeegees or rags to clean both sides of the new glass panels, including the tracks underneath the sliding door and the narrow area where the sliding door overlaps with the stationary panel. The housekeepers must also remove and clean the newly installed, grated metal drain covers. In addition to the renovated showers, the new furniture in the rooms also affected the housekeepers’ cleaning tasks. When guests use sofa beds, which are now in more rooms post-renovation, housekeepers must remove the bed linens and fold the mattress back into the sofa. Housekeepers also need to change more pillows in guest rooms with double-sized beds than before, as well as handle heavier and longer pillows in all of the rooms.

On February 28, 2018, two days after renovations began, the Union sent an information request to the Company. This first information request asked for a description of the renovation work to be performed, the anticipated or actual start and completion dates, and whether there would be any change in work requirements for Union-represented employees.

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98 F.4th 314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cp-anchorage-hotel-2-llc-v-nlrb-cadc-2024.