HOUSTON — Labor unions are experiencing a renaissance in the U.S., a movement that's on the radar of hoteliers.
Both the U.S. hotel industry — and the country’s workplaces generally — have seen a significant uptick in unionization in recent years, said Andria Ryan, partner at Fisher Phillips and co-chair of the firm’s hospitality business practice group at the Hospitality Law Conference. There’s also been an increase in the amount of enforcement efforts by the National Labor Relations Board against non-unionized employers.
Ryan advised hospitality lawyers at the event that even if they don't work with unions today, it's critical to pay attention to the latest union efforts in other industries, since their successes could lead to more unionization within the hotel industry.
Growing Popularity of Unions
The unionization win rate has grown to 80% recently, Ryan said. For decades, employers won over most union elections, but now they have a 20%-win chance. A 2023 Gallup poll reflected a 67% approval rating for unions, which was above the five-year average. The percentage of people ages 19 to 35 with a favorable impression of labor unions was over 70%.
“What do 19-year-olds even know about labor unions?” she asked. “We’re really not talking about folks that are working in the steel industry and working on the assembly line at General Motors. That’s the traditional idea we have of unions, but we’re starting to see a major shift really back to 1976 levels.”
Companies are even seeing unionization in non-traditional ways and areas, she said. The Starbucks Workers Union, for example, has taken the approach of growing one location at a time. Earlier this week, the Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, saw employees vote 73% in favor of joining the United Auto Workers union.
The Starbucks union is one example of grassroots organizing, Ryan said. They’re growing at about 30 members at a time, and most of the employees are about 19 to 29 years old. They’re seeking increased wages, guaranteed hours with predictable schedules, health insurance, distribution of credit card tips, a wider range of apron sizes and more flexibility on tattoos and piercings.
She also cited the Union of Southern Service Workers based in Columbia, South Carolina. They represent low-wage workers in the service industry, and they use non-traditional organizing methods by pursuing smaller properties to recognize them as union representatives. Its membership wants equal pay regardless of race, gender, age, immigration status or sexual orientation; a fair grievance process; safe workplaces; healthcare benefits; paid sick leave; full-time hours; and regular weekly schedules.
“Those employees are younger, and they’re used to the concept of banding together for their voice to be heard,” she said. “I think our clients and our operators are going to have to figure out how to give them that voice, give them that audience in an appropriate way.”
NLRB Decisions
The NLRB has been pushing through union- and employee-friendly rules, Ryan said. It’s a swing back from the Trump administration, which itself was a pendulum swing from the Obama administration.
“I just don't know that we anticipated it was going to swing as much because it really has,” she said.
One of the major changes was the return of the “quickie election,” she said, referring to an August 2023 NLRB decision. Previously, when an employer received a union petition, they had time to speak with employees about unionization, who runs them and the dues they’ll have to pay. There’s usually 30 to 45 days to have meetings, and there are pre-election hearings that, among other duties, determine who will voting in the election as supervisors would be excluded.
“They want to make pre-hearings and post-hearing — it's much more efficient, much more quickly done and schedule representation elections sooner,” she said.
The other big change was the reinstatement of smaller collective bargaining units, or micro units, Ryan said. Before this change, employers would argue that employees could vote to unionize, but because they had a community of interest in the hotel, they would have to get 50% plus one of every eligible employee in the hotel to vote in favor of unionizing.
“The front desk, food and beverage, housekeeping and engineering all have a community of interest in the running of this hotel, so they should all have a say in whether they’re unionized,” she said.
Under the reinstated standard, individual departments of a hotel’s operations could unionize, she said. It’s much easier for unionization to win when they’re working with smaller units, and then there’s greater potential for the other departments to follow suit.
In its February 2023 McLaren Macomb decision, the NLRB restricted the use of non-disclosure agreements and non-disparagement agreements with severance agreements. The case involved a unionized teaching hospital that offered severance agreements when reducing the number of staff, but those receiving the severance packages had to keep the terms confidential and couldn’t disparage the company, its products and service or its customers.
The board found the provisions were overly broad for both the non-disclosure and non-disparagement provisions, Ryan said. Employees have the right to discuss their wages, and that includes severance provisions, and they have the right to complain about a company.
“It would be prudent to take a look at your severance agreements and modify them,” she said.
Severance agreements are not categorically illegal, so companies can still use them, but they should be tailored further, she said. Non-disparagement provisions should address defamatory untrue statements as opposed to just negative statements. The confidentiality provisions need to be limited to the disclosure of the financial terms, not necessarily the existence of the agreement or the fact they’re being let go.
Consider some sort of disclaimer that states neither of the provisions is designed or should be read as denying their right to engage in protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act, Ryan said.
The National Labor Relations Act only applies to frontline employees, not supervisors or managers, she added.