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While Woodfin Suite Hotel workers are beefing up union and local support to get the hotel to comply with Measure C, Emeryville’s Living Wage Ordinance for hotel workers, the hotel is flexing its muscle in its own way. Last week the Woodfin filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court—for the second time—claiming the 2005 law passed by the city’s voters is unconstitu-tional. 

Attorneys at Shea Stokes, Alc. say Measure C compels the hotel “to continue employing undocumented workers in violation of express federal law prohibiting such employment.”  

The lawsuit also targets labor organizers: “Measure C is calculated primarily to tilt the economic playing field in favor of organized labor,” the complaint says. 

In a phone interview Thursday, Emeryville City Attorney Michael Biddle said while the city has received a copy of the lawsuit, it has not been formally served with it. He noted that it was filed just before the city is to go into mediation with the Woodfin in mid April over a number of issues related to the enforcement of Measure C. 

The lawsuit filed last week is similar to one the hotel filed in February 2006, which the hotel subsequently opted to dismiss, Biddle said. The judge approved the dismissal in January 2007 and ordered Woodfin to pay attorney’s fees of $10,000. 

“This left the challenge open,” Biddle said, adding that he hopes the two sides can resolve all the related issues through mediation. 

One of the issues is the attempted firing of some 21 workers whom the hotel said did not have proper social security numbers. Supporters of the Woodfin workers say that the firing was in fact retaliation for the workers’ attempt to get Measure C enforced. 

In response to the attempted firing, workers’ representatives and the city of Emeryville went to superior court on Dec. 21 and were granted a restraining order preventing the Woodfin from firing the workers. A few days later, the Emeryville City Council approved an emergency ordinance prohibiting hotels from firing workers who have filed Measure C complaints, or reducing their hours, during a 90-day investigation period. 

And in January Alameda County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Sabraw granted Woodfin workers an injunction through April 20, preventing the hotel from firing them while the city investigates the workers’ complaints that the hotel failed to comply with Measure C.  

The lawsuit “shows Woodfin is being very intransigent and unreasonable,” said Sara Norr, organizer with EBASE, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, which has been supporting the workers. 

Meanwhile on April 4, the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, announced that it had called for a boycott of the Emeryville Woodfin Suite Hotel. 

And on Tuesday, 487 Emeryville residents went on record in support of the workers. Sandra Butler was one of the residents who presented a petition and signatures to the City Council on Tuesday urging elected officials to require the Woodfin to pay $160,000 in back pay owed to its workers and to guarantee the workers’ job security before issuing the Woodfin its annual operating permit. 

“What’s being asked is very straightforward,” Watergate complex resident Butler, a filmmaker, told the council. “We want you to support the workers in their fight for a living wage and make certain they have job security. When I went around to my neighbors to have them sign the petitions, some people expressed shock that we were still doing this type of work like this to get job security for workers. One neighbor asked what decade are we in? If nothing is done, 14 workers will get fired only because they asked for a living wage.” 

On Monday, the workers and their supporters will take to the streets of Emeryville in what EBASE organizers are calling a “march for justice.” It is likely to be the largest march in the history of Emeryville, they say.  

Marchers will gather at Emeryville City Hall, at 1330 Park Ave. at 5:30 p.m. and march to the Woodfin at 5800 Shellmound St. 

J. Douglas Allen-Taylor contributed to this article.