Thread: CA: Bilbray calls on Feds to investigate hotel employees

Bilbray calls on Feds to investigate hotel employees

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, stepped in the middle of a bitter labor dispute in the Bay Area recently when he helped the employer, a politically connected Rancho Santa Fe hotel owner, initiate an investigation of his employees' immigration status.

Bilbray asked officials to check the status of workers at the Woodfin Suites Hotel in Emeryville, after a political contributor who owns the hotel asked Bilbray to do so.

The owner, Sam Hardage, is at the center of a bitter labor dispute with his workers, some of whom have charged that the immigration crackdown, which led to the firing of 12 employees, was a retribution tactic against the laborers.

Bilbray, an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, said Tuesday that a labor dispute is no excuse to keep immigration authorities from enforcing the law. He said his office staff handled the matter as it would any constituent complaint.

"Mr. Sam Hardage said, 'I've got a problem,' and he didn't know how to deal with it," Bilbray said. "I don't care about the labor dispute."

Labor activists said the congressman used his influence "inappropiately" by getting involved in the dispute hundreds of miles outside his district. A spokesman for Bilbray said the congressman, who was elected on a platform of strong immigration enforcement last year, did what most of his constituents expect of him.

Labor activists involved in the dispute said the workers filed complaints last year with the city after the Bay Area hotel failed to comply with a living wage ordinance approved by voters in 2005. Hotel officials said they were in a bind due to conflicting local and federal laws when they sought Bilbray's assistance.

The hotel contended that some of its workers had questionable Social Security numbers but the company was barred by the courts from firing those workers because of a pending labor dispute.

"Because Emeryville's (living wage law) and its regulations directly contradict federal immigration laws and violate the Constitution's due-process clause, we have regularly sought expertise and guidance from a number of scholars, attorneys and other highly knowledgeable sources, including elected officials with significant immigration-policy experience, such as Rep. Bilbray," said Hugh MacIntosh, the hotel's general manager, in a written statement.

After hotel managers spoke with members of Bilbray staff, the congressman sent a letter to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for immigration enforcement.

Bilbray's letter, dated Feb. 21, asked Julie Meyers, the agency's assistant secretary, to investigate the immigration status of employees at four Emeryville hotels, including the Woodfin Suites.

"Constituents of mine have brought to my attention that hotels in Emeryville, CA, are by state court order employing undocumented workers," according to the letter.

A living wage

Woodfin Suites is part of an upscale, nationwide, 17-hotel chain that includes a property in San Diego. Hardage is president of the company and owns most of the hotels.

Hardage is also a former chairman of the San Diego County Republican Party. From 2001 to 2006, Hardage and his wife, Vivian Hardage, contributed more than $66,000 to the party and Republican candidates, including $4,200 to Bilbray, according to the Web site, OpenSecrets.org, which tracks political fundraising and lobbying.

The labor dispute at Woodfin Suites dates back to late 2005, when voters in Emeryville passed Measure C, the living wage law. It required that hotels with more than 50 rooms pay employees a minimum wage of $9 an hour and an average of $11 an hour for all nonmanagerial employees.

Measure C went into effect in December 2005. Two hotels, including Woodfin Suites, challenged the law in federal court but were denied a request for an injunction.

In September 2006, 13 housekeepers filed a class action lawsuit in state court seeking back pay. The suit has not been resolved.

Hotel officials said they warned several employees last year that their Social Security numbers did not match those on the Social Security Administration's list. A state court judge later issued a temporary restraining order blocking the company from firing workers who did not correct the Social Security numbers.

After the judge lifted the restraining order in April, the hotel fired 12 of its 50 housekeepers, according to labor activists with the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, which is affiliated with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union.

The alliance has led numerous loud rallies outside the hotel. Hotel managers, through a Web site devoted to the dispute, have criticized the group's tactics.

Brooke Anderson, organizing director with the East Bay alliance, said the workers' immigration status became a problem for hotel management only after the employees complained that the hotel was not complying with the living-wage law.

"We believe this because (the) Social Security Administration tells employers not to fire workers for receiving no-match letters," Anderson said. "The hotel had received no-match letters for workers every year and never chose to fire workers."

Anderson said the fired employees are living on donations from the public. They have not been deported.

Hotel officials deny the activists' claims that management retaliated against the workers. Officials said the workers' decision last month to drop their complaints to the city is evidence that they don't have a basis for their claims.

"It is deeply unfortunate that we were and are put in the position of having to justify our decision to comply with U.S. immigration law," MacIntosh wrote in his statement.

Anderson said the workers decided to drop the complaints in the city to focus on the court lawsuit.

ICE's response

In his statement, MacIntosh also cited the various immigration raids and punishment against employers who hire illegal immigrants as a reason why they sought Bilbray's assistance.

"Bay Area residents know that for the past year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been extremely aggressive in imposing civil and even criminal penalties on companies that knowingly employ undocumented workers," he said. "As a result, we at Woodfin Suites were determined to do everything possible to protect our company and our employees from such liabilities."

Lori Haley, a spokeswoman with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency does not comment on investigations, but issued a written statement.

"ICE's mandate is to ensure the integrity of the work force and that those who are employed in this country are legally authorized to work," according to the statement. "The agency respects employees' rights to a safe and fair workplace; however, if ICE has evidence of criminal activity, a labor dispute does not preclude us from conducting an investigation."

However, Immigrant rights activists point out that the agency has a policy regarding investigations where there is a labor dispute.

The agency adopted the policy more a decade ago requiring agents to use restraint to "avoid inappropriate worksite interventions where it is known or reasonably suspected that a labor dispute is occurring and the intervention may, or may be sought so as to, interfere in the dispute."

Mariaelena Hincapie, a staff attorney for the National Immigration Law Center, a policy analysis and immigrant rights advocacy in Los Angeles, said the Woodfin Suites dispute is the kind of case that the policy was meant to address.

"When a company like Woodfin is allowed to retaliate against employees, it sends a strong message to all its employees: Don't complain, just do your job," Hincapie said.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/06 ... 190530.txt

Another perfect example as to how illegal aliens and their support groups have an entitlement philosopy to America.

THESE EMPLOYEES ARE ILLEGAL. IF THEY WERE HERE LEGALLY THEY WOULD HAVE DOCUMENTS TO PROVE IT. SUPPOSE THEY GET A NO MATCH LETTER .....THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO PROVE YOU ARE LEGIT.

A PASSPORT, A GREEN CARD. GET A LETTER FROM INS THAT YOU ARE HERE LEGALLY. THERE IS NO REASON THESE EMPLOYEES WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING. THEY ARE ILLEGAL.

IT LOOKS TO ME LIKE THE LABOR DISPUTE IS A SMOKE SCREEN TO COVER THE FACT OR TO DETRAC FROM THE FACT THAT THEY ARE IN THE COUNTRY ILLEGALLY.