Challenges Cloud Results of Hotel Union Election

Results of a union election held Wednesday at the Miramar Sheraton Hotel were inconclusive because challenges were filed to several ballots, officials said Thursday.

James Middleton, field examiner for the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board, said workers cast 106 votes in favor of retaining Local 814 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union as their bargaining agent and 114 votes against the union.

Until the validity of 17 uncounted ballots can be determined, Middleton said, the hotel workers will still be represented by the union.

Some of the 17 challenges were filed by the union and some by an anti-union hotel worker, said Tom Walsh, president of Local 814.

Walsh said he expected the NLRB’s investigation into the challenged ballots to take several months. He said Local 814 plans to file objections about the election process with the NLRB.