American Hotel & Lodging Ass'n v. City of Los Angeles

Opinion by

The American Hotel & Lodging Association and Asian American Hotel Owners Association (“the Hotels”) appeal the denial of their motion to preliminarily enjoin the City of Los Angeles (“the City”) from enforcing the Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (“the Wage Ordinance”). The Hotels argue that the entire Wage Ordinance is preempted by federal labor law, referred to as Machinists preemption, because the Ordinance interferes with labor-management relations. The Hotels also argue that the opt-out provision for collective bargaining agreements is independently preempted.

The district court concluded that preemption was inapplicable and denied the Hotels’ motion for preliminary injunctive relief. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm.

I. Background

At issue in this ease is the Citywide Hotel Worker Minimum Wage Ordinance (“the Wage Ordinance”), adopted by the Los Angeles City Council on October 1, 2014. The Wage Ordinance provides, among-other provisions, an increased minimum wage for workers at select hotels— large hotels citywide with more than 150 rooms and some smaller hotels near the Los Angeles International airport…