520 South Michigan v. Shannon, Catherine ( 2008 )


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  •                               In the
    United States Court of Appeals
    For the Seventh Circuit
    No. 07-3377
    520 S OUTH M ICHIGAN A VENUE A SSOCIATES, L TD., d/b/a
    T HE C ONGRESS P LAZA H OTEL & C ONVENTION C ENTER,
    Plaintiff-Appellant,
    v.
    C ATHERINE S HANNON, Director of the Illinois
    Department of Labor,
    Defendant-Appellee,
    and
    U NITE H ERE L OCAL 1,
    Intervenor-Appellee.
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
    No. 06 C 4552—Joan Humphry Lefkow, Judge.
    A RGUED F EBRUARY 19, 2008—D ECIDED D ECEMBER 15, 2008
    Before M ANION, K ANNE, and T INDER, Circuit Judges.
    M ANION, Circuit Judge. 520 S. Michigan Avenue Associ-
    ates, Ltd., doing business as The Congress Plaza Hotel &
    2                                               No. 07-3377
    Convention Center (“Congress Plaza”), sued the Director
    of the Illinois Department of Labor (“Illinois”), seeking a
    declaratory judgment that Illinois statute 820 ILCS 140/3.1,
    the Hotel Room Attendant Amendment (“Attendant
    Amendment”) to the One Day Rest in Seven Act, 820 ILCS
    140/1 et. seq., is unconstitutional. Unite Here Local 1, a
    labor union, intervened and together with Illinois moved
    to dismiss pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). The district
    court granted the defendant’s and intervenor’s motions to
    dismiss, rejecting Congress Plaza’s arguments that the
    Attendant Amendment was preempted by the National
    Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), 
    29 U.S.C. § 151
     et seq., and
    violated its due process and equal protection rights.
    Congress Plaza appeals. Because the Attendant Amend-
    ment is preempted by the NLRA, we reverse.
    I.
    Congress Plaza is located on Michigan Avenue in
    Chicago, Illinois, in Cook County. Congress Plaza, em-
    ploys, among others, room attendants who clean guest
    rooms. The Unite Here Local 1 union (“Unite Here”)
    represents the approximately 130 room attendants working
    at Congress Plaza, as well as several hundred room
    attendants working at other Cook County hotels. As of the
    date of oral argument, Congress Plaza and Unite Here’s
    latest collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) had expired
    on December 31, 2002. Since June 2003, Unite Here mem-
    bers have engaged in a work stoppage while negotiating
    a new CBA. Congress Plaza has continued to abide by the
    terms of the expired CBA, requiring a work day of eight
    productive hours and providing meals free of charge to its
    No. 07-3377                                                   3
    room attendants, along with clean and sanitary facilities.
    Congress Plaza also customarily provides one half-hour
    unpaid lunch break.
    In the midst of Congress Plaza’s negotiations with Unite
    Here, the Illinois legislature passed the Hotel Room
    Attendant Amendment (“Attendant Amendment”) to the
    One Day Rest in Seven Act. The One Day Rest in Seven
    Act was originally enacted in July 1935 and currently
    provides that “[e]very employer shall allow every em-
    ployee except those specified in this Section at least
    twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in every calendar
    week in addition to the regular period of rest allowed at
    the close of each working day.” 1 820 ILCS 140/2. The One
    1
    Under current law, Illinois exempts seven categories of
    employees from the mandated rest day: “(1) Part-time employ-
    ees whose total work hours for one employer during a calendar
    week do not exceed 20; and (2) Employees needed in case of
    breakdown of machinery or equipment or other emergency
    requiring the immediate services of experienced and competent
    labor to prevent injury to person, damage to property, or
    suspension of necessary operation; and (3) Employees em-
    ployed in agriculture or coal mining; and (4) Employees
    engaged in the occupation of canning and processing perishable
    agricultural products, if such employees are employed by an
    employer in such occupation on a seasonal basis and for not
    more than 20 weeks during any calendar year or 12 month
    period; and (5) Employees employed as watchmen or security
    guards; and (6) Employees who are employed in a bonafide
    executive, administrative, or professional capacity or in the
    capacity of an outside salesman, as defined in Section 12 (a)(1)
    of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, as amended, and those
    (continued...)
    4                                                  No. 07-3377
    Day Rest in Seven Act further provides: “Every employer
    shall permit its employees who are to work for 7 ½ contin-
    uous hours or longer, except those specified in this Section,
    at least 20 minutes for a meal period beginning no later
    than 5 hours after the start of the work period.” 2 820 ILCS
    140/3. The section mandating a 20-minute meal period
    “does not apply to employees for whom meal periods are
    established through the collective bargaining process.” 
    Id.
    The Attendant Amendment to the One Day Rest in
    Seven Act provides, in full:
    § 3.1. Hotel room attendants.
    (a) As used in this Section, “hotel room attendant”
    means a person who cleans or puts in order guest
    rooms in a hotel or other establishment licensed
    for transient occupancy.
    1
    (...continued)
    employed as supervisors as defined in Section 2(11) of the
    National Labor Relations Act, as amended; and (7) Employees
    who are employed as crew members of any uninspected towing
    vessel, as defined by Section 2101(40) of Title 46 of the United
    States Code, operating in any navigable waters in or along
    the boundaries of the State of Illinois.” 820 ILCS 140/2.
    2
    “This Section does not apply to employees who monitor
    individuals with developmental disabilities or mental illness,
    or both, and who, in the course of those duties, are required
    to be on call during an entire 8 hour work period; however,
    those employees shall be allowed to eat a meal during the 8 hour
    work period while continuing to monitor those individuals.”
    820 ILCS 140/3.
    No. 07-3377                                                       5
    (b) This Section applies only to hotels and other
    establishments licensed for transient occupancy
    that are located in a county with a population
    greater than 3,000,000.3
    (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
    every hotel room attendant shall receive a mini-
    mum of two 15-minute paid rest breaks and one
    30-minute meal period in each workday on which
    the hotel room attendant works at least 7 hours.
    An employer may not require any hotel room
    attendant to work during a break period.
    (d) Every employer of hotel room attendants shall
    make available at all times a room on the em-
    ployer’s premises with adequate seating and
    tables for the purpose of allowing hotel room
    attendants to enjoy break periods in a clean and
    comfortable environment. The room shall have
    clean drinking water provided without charge.
    (e) Each employer of hotel room attendants shall
    keep a complete and accurate record of the break
    periods of its hotel room attendants.
    3
    Only one county out of the 102 counties in Illinois—Cook
    County—has a population of more than three million people.
    As of the 2000 census, Cook County’s population was
    5,376,741. See http://illinoisgis.ito.state.il.us/census2000/county_
    census.asp?ct=P0010001 (last visited August 15, 2008). DuPage
    County has the next highest population base, but as of 2000,
    not even one million people resided there. Id.
    6                                           No. 07-3377
    (f) An employer who violates this Section shall pay
    to the hotel room attendant 3 times the hotel room
    attendant’s regular hourly rate of pay for each
    workday during which the required breaks were
    not provided.
    (g) It is unlawful for any employer or an em-
    ployer’s agent or representative to take any action
    against any person in retaliation for the exercise
    of rights under this Section. In any civil pro-
    ceeding brought under this subsection (f), if the
    plaintiff establishes that he or she was employed
    by the defendant, exercised rights under this
    Section, or alleged in good faith that the defendant
    was not complying with this Section, and was
    thereafter terminated, demoted, or otherwise
    penalized by the defendant, then a rebuttable
    presumption shall arise that the defendant’s action
    was taken in retaliation for the exercise of rights
    established by this Section. To rebut the presump-
    tion, the defendant must prove that the sole
    reason for the termination, demotion, or penalty
    was a legitimate business reason.
    (h) In addition to the remedies provided in Sec-
    tions 6 and 7, a person claiming violation of this
    Section shall be entitled to all remedies available
    under law or in equity, including but not limited to
    damages, back pay, reinstatement, or injunctive
    relief. Any person terminated in violation of this
    Section shall recover treble his or her lost normal
    daily compensation and fringe benefits, together
    No. 07-3377                                                  7
    with interest thereon, and any consequential
    damages suffered by the employee. The court
    shall award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to
    a prevailing plaintiff in an enforcement action
    under this Section.
    820 ILCS 140/3.1
    After the Illinois legislature passed the Attendant
    Amendment and the governor signed it into law, the
    Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association filed a declaratory
    judgment action in state court against the Director of the
    Illinois Department of Labor, seeking to have the Atten-
    dant Amendment declared unconstitutional. The state
    trial court granted the Illinois Department of Labor sum-
    mary judgment, concluding that the Attendant Amend-
    ment was not preempted, and that the Attendant Amend-
    ment did not violate the Illinois Constitution’s prohibition
    on special legislation or the plaintiff’s right to equal
    protection. Ill. Hotel & Lodging Ass’n v. Ludwig, No.
    05CH13796, *10 (Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois).
    The Illinois appellate court affirmed. See Ill. Hotel & Lodging
    Ass’n v. Ludwig, 
    869 N.E.2d 846
     (Ill. App. Ct. 1st Dist. 2007).
    The Supreme Court of Illinois declined to hear the Illinois
    Hotel and Lodging Association’s appeal. Ill. Hotel &
    Lodging Ass’n v. Ludwig, 
    875 N.E.2d 1111
     (Ill. 2007).
    While the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association’s case
    was making its way through the Illinois state court system,
    Congress Plaza, which is not a member of that trade
    organization, filed its own challenge to the Attendant
    Amendment in federal court. Congress Plaza argued that
    the Attendant Amendment is preempted by the National
    8                                                     No. 07-3377
    Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), 
    29 U.S.C. § 151
     et seq., and
    section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act
    (“LMRA”), 
    29 U.S.C. § 185
    (a). Congress Plaza also alleged
    that the Attendant Amendment violated its due process
    and equal protection rights, as well as provisions of the
    Illinois Constitution. Congress Plaza sought a permanent
    injunction prohibiting enforcement of the Attendant
    Amendment.
    Illinois and Unite Here filed separate motions to
    dismiss under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). Illinois also filed a
    motion to dismiss under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1), claiming
    Eleventh Amendment immunity from the state claims.
    The district court granted the defendants’ motions to
    dismiss Congress Plaza’s preemption and equal protection
    and due process claims. 520 S. Michigan Ave. Assoc., Ltd. v.
    Shannon, 
    2007 WL 2728757
     at *8-11 (N.D. Ill. 2007). The
    district court then declined jurisdiction over Congress
    Plaza’s state law claims. 
    Id. at *11
    . Congress Plaza appeals.
    II.
    On appeal, Congress Plaza argues that the NLRA
    preempts the Attendant Amendment.4 Whether the NLRA
    4
    Congress Plaza does not pursue its § 301 LMRA preemption
    claim on appeal. Moreover, while Congress Plaza states in its
    Statement of the Case that it “also claims the amendment
    violates the special legislation provision of the Illinois Constitu-
    tion and constitutes an arbitrary legislative classification,”
    Appellant Br. at 2, it does not present these claims in its Issues
    (continued...)
    No. 07-3377                                                         9
    preempts the Attendant Amendment is a pure legal
    question and therefore we review the district court’s
    decision de novo. See Cannon v. Edgar, 
    33 F.3d 880
    , 883 (7th
    Cir. 1994). Moreover, our de novo review is not limited by
    the state court’s decision in Ill. Hotel & Lodging Ass’n v.
    Ludwig, 
    869 N.E.2d 846
    , holding that the Attendant
    Amendment is not preempted by the NLRA. We “owe[ ] no
    deference to state-court interpretation of the United States
    Constitution.” TMJ Implants, Inc. v. Aetna, Inc., 
    498 F.3d 1175
    , 1181 (10th Cir. 2007) (citing Ace Cycle World, Inc. v.
    Am. Honda Motor Co., 
    788 F.2d 1225
    , 1228 (7th Cir. 1986)).5
    4
    (...continued)
    Presented For Review. Congress Plaza also does not make any
    argument in support of its state law claims. Accordingly,
    Congress Plaza has waived any argument based on state law.
    See Hildebrandt v. Ill. Dep’t of Natural Res., 
    347 F.3d 1014
    , 1025 n.6
    (7th Cir. 2003) (holding that when a party presents no argu-
    ment in its brief with respect to a particular claim, any argu-
    ments with respect to that claim are waived).
    5
    When the question of federal preemption of state law is at
    issue, state and federal courts, perhaps not surprisingly, may
    reach starkly divergent views on the United States Constitution,
    as illustrated most clearly in Geier v. American Honda Motor Co.,
    
    529 U.S. 861
     (2000). In Geier, the Supreme Court held that a state
    tort claim against Honda for failing to provide a driver’s side
    air bag was preempted by a federal regulation. Prior to the
    Supreme Court’s ruling, every federal circuit which considered
    the issue had held that the state law was preempted, while
    state courts uniformly held to the contrary—that federal law
    did not preempt state law. Geier, 
    529 U.S. at 866
    .
    10                                               No. 07-3377
    Our review of preemption begins with the Constitution’s
    Supremacy Clause. See Cannon, 
    33 F.3d at 883
    . The Su-
    premacy Clause provides:
    This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States
    which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all
    Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the
    Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme
    Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be
    bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws
    of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
    U.S. Const. art. VI, cl. 2. Thus, under Article VI of the
    Constitution, federal law is the “supreme Law of the
    Land,” and “it preempts state laws that ‘interfere with,
    or are contrary to, federal law.’ ” Boomer v. AT & T Corp.,
    
    309 F.3d 404
    , 417 (7th Cir. 2002) (quoting Hillsborough
    County v. Automated Medical Laboratories, Inc., 
    471 U.S. 707
    , 712 (1985)).
    In Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Massachusetts, 
    471 U.S. 724
    (1985), the Supreme Court summarized the task courts
    face when confronted with the issue of preemption, stating:
    In deciding whether a federal law pre-empts a state
    statute, our task is to ascertain Congress’ intent in
    enacting the federal statute at issue. Pre-emption may
    be either express or implied, and is compelled whether
    Congress’ command is explicitly stated in the
    statute’s language or implicitly contained in its struc-
    ture and purpose.
    
    Id. at 738
     (internal quotations omitted).
    No. 07-3377                                                       11
    As the Supreme Court recently explained in Chambers of
    Commerce v. Brown, 
    128 S.Ct. 2408
     (2008), “the NLRA itself
    contains no express preemption provision.” 
    Id. at 2412
    .
    Thus, the issue facing us is one of implied preemption.
    With implied preemption, a state law should be sus-
    tained “unless it conflicts with federal law or would
    frustrate the federal scheme, or unless the courts discern
    from the totality of the circumstances that Congress
    sought to occupy the field to the exclusion of the States.”
    Malone v. White Motor Corp., 
    435 U.S. 497
    , 504 (1978).
    Further, in the context of the NLRA, a state law is pre-
    empted by implication if it conflicts with the underlying
    goals and policies of the NLRA or stands “as an obstacle to
    the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes
    and objectives” of Congress. Livadas v. Bradshaw, 
    512 U.S. 107
    , 120 (1994) (internal quotation omitted).
    From these general preemption principles, the Supreme
    Court has developed two relevant NLRA preemption
    doctrines: Garmon preemption and Machinists preemption.
    See San Diego Bldg. Trades Council v. Garmon, 
    359 U.S. 236
    (1959); Machinists v. Wisconsin Employment Relations
    Comm’n, 
    427 U.S. 132
     (1976).6 The first doctrine, Garmon
    preemption, seeks to prevent conflicts between state and
    6
    A third preemption doctrine, based on § 301 of the LMRA,
    “pre-empts state law only insofar as resolution of the state-law
    claim requires the interpretation of a collective-bargaining
    agreement . . . . ” Lingle v. Norge Div. of Magic Chef, 
    486 U.S. 399
    ,
    410 n.8 (1988). Congress Plaza argued to the district court that
    § 301 preempts the Attendant Amendment, but as noted
    above, it does not pursue that argument on appeal.
    12                                              No. 07-3377
    local regulation and Congress’s integrated scheme of
    regulation embodied in Sections 7 and 8 of the NLRA.
    Garmon, 
    359 U.S. at 244-45
    . Garmon preemption further
    seeks to protect the NLRB’s primary jurisdiction in cases
    involving sections 7 and 8 of the NLRA. 
    Id.
     See also Livadas
    v. Bradshaw, 
    512 U.S. 107
    , 117, n.11 (1994).
    The second relevant NLRA preemption doctrine is
    Machinists preemption. See Machinists v. Wis. Employment
    Relations Comm’n, 
    427 U.S. 132
     (1976). As the Supreme
    Court explained in Metropolitan Life, 
    471 U.S. 724
    , this
    “second pre-emption doctrine protects against state
    interference with policies implicated by the structure of
    the Act itself, by pre-empting state law and state causes
    of action concerning conduct that Congress intended to
    be unregulated.” 
    Id. at 749
    . This preemption doctrine
    governs “preemption questions that arose concerning
    activity that was neither arguably protected against
    employer interference by §§ 7 and 8(a)(1) of the NLRA, nor
    arguably prohibited as an unfair labor practice by § 8(b) of
    that Act. 
    29 U.S.C. § 157
    , 158(a)(1) and (b).” 
    Id.
     Thus, in
    Machinists, the Court held “that a State may not penalize
    a concerted refusal to work overtime that was neither
    prohibited nor protected under the NLRA, for ‘Congress
    intended that the conduct involved be unregulated
    because [it] left [the conduct]’ to be controlled by the free
    play of economic forces.” Metropolitan Life, 471 U.S. at 750
    (quoting Machinists, 
    427 U.S. at 140
    ). While initially,
    Machinists preemption sought “to determine whether
    certain weapons of bargaining neither protected by § 7 nor
    forbidden by § 8(b) could be subject to state regulation,
    [i]t has been used more recently to determine the validity
    No. 07-3377                                               13
    of state rules of general application that affect the right
    to bargain or to self-organization.” Metropolitan Life, 
    471 U.S. at
    749 n.27 (internal citations omitted). As the Su-
    preme Court recently explained in Brown, “Machinists pre-
    emption is based on the premise that Congress struck a
    balance of protection, prohibition, and laissez-faire in
    respect to union organization, collective bargaining, and
    labor disputes.” Brown, 
    128 S.Ct. at 2412
     (internal quota-
    tions omitted). We also elaborated on the concept of
    Machinists preemption in Cannon, explaining that this
    doctrine “prohibits state and municipal regulations of
    areas that Congress left to the free play of economic
    forces.” Cannon, 
    33 F.3d at 885
     (internal quotations and
    citations omitted).
    Congress Plaza argues that the Attendant Amendment
    is preempted by both Machinists preemption and Garmon
    preemption. At oral argument, though, in response to our
    query, Congress Plaza acknowledged that it believes
    Machinists preemption the stronger of the two arguments.
    We agree. See Metropolitan Life, 
    471 U.S. at 751
     (considering
    whether a state law establishing minimal mental health
    benefits in insurance plans was preempted by the NLRA
    and stating that “[a]ll parties correctly understand this
    case to involve Machinists pre-emption”). Therefore, we
    begin with Congress Plaza’s argument that Machinists
    preempts the Attendant Amendment.
    Congress Plaza argues Machinists preempts the Atten-
    dant Amendment because the Attendant Amendment
    “intrudes on the parties’ collective bargaining process” and
    alters the “free play of economic forces.” In response,
    14                                              No. 07-3377
    Illinois and Unite Here (hereinafter collectively “appel-
    lees”) argue that the Attendant Amendment is a mini-
    mum labor standard and as such is not preempted by
    the NLRA, citing Metropolitan Life, 
    471 U.S. 724
     and Fort
    Halifax, 482 U.S.1.
    In Metropolitan Life, 
    471 U.S. 724
    , two insurance compa-
    nies (“appellants”), which issued group-health insurance
    policies in Massachusetts, argued that a Massachusetts
    statute requiring “any general health-insurance policy
    that provides hospital and surgical coverage, or any
    benefit plan that has such coverage, to provide as well a
    certain minimum of mental-health protection,” was
    preempted by ERISA and the NLRA. 
    Id. at 730
    . The
    appellants in Metropolitan Life argued that “[b]ecause
    welfare benefits are a mandatory subject of bargaining
    under the labor law, . . . the NLRA pre-empts any state
    attempt to impose minimum-benefit terms on the parties.”
    
    Id. at 751-52
    .
    The Supreme Court rejected this argument, concluding
    that “[t]he evil Congress was addressing [with the
    NLRA] . . . was entirely unrelated to local or federal
    regulation establishing minimum terms of employment.”
    
    Id. at 754
    . Accordingly, the Court held that “[n]o incompat-
    ibility exists, therefore, between federal rules designed to
    restore the equality of bargaining power, and state or
    federal legislation that imposes minimal substantive
    requirements on contract terms negotiated between
    parties to labor agreements, at least so long as the pur-
    pose of the state legislation is not incompatible with
    these general goals of the NLRA.” 
    Id. at 754-55
    . The Court
    No. 07-3377                                               15
    further expounded on the meaning of minimum state
    labor standards, stating they “affect union and nonunion
    employees equally, and neither encourage nor dis-
    courage the collective-bargaining processes that are the
    subject of the NLRA. Nor do they have any but the most
    indirect effect on the right of self-organization established
    in the Act.” 
    Id. at 755
    . “Most significantly,” continued the
    Court, there was “no suggestion in the legislative history
    of the [NLRA] that Congress intended to disturb the
    myriad state laws then in existence that set minimum
    labor standards, but were unrelated in any way to the
    processes of bargaining or self-organization.” 
    Id. at 756
    .
    Rather, the Court “believe[d] that Congress developed
    the framework for self-organization and collective bar-
    gaining of the NLRA within the larger body of state law
    promoting public health and safety.” 
    Id.
     The Supreme
    Court added:
    Federal labor law in this sense is interstitial, supple-
    menting state law where compatible, and supplanting
    it only when it prevents the accomplishment of the
    purpose of the federal Act. Thus the Court has recog-
    nized that it cannot declare pre-empted all local
    regulation that touches or concerns in any way the
    complex interrelationship between employees, employ-
    ers, and unions; obviously, much of this is left to the
    States. When a state law establishes a minimal em-
    ployment standard not inconsistent with the general
    legislative goals of the NLRA, it conflicts with none
    of the purposes of the Act.
    
    Id. at 756-57
     (internal quotation omitted).
    16                                              No. 07-3377
    The Supreme Court then applied the aforementioned
    principles to the case at hand and held:
    Massachusetts’ mandated-benefit law is an insurance
    regulation designed to implement the Common-
    wealth’s policy on mental-health care, and as such is a
    valid and unexceptional exercise of the Common-
    wealth’s police power. It was designed in part to
    ensure that the less wealthy residents of the Common-
    wealth would be provided adequate mental-health
    treatment should they require it. Though [the insur-
    ance statute], like many laws affecting terms of em-
    ployment, potentially limits an employee’s right to
    choose one thing by requiring that he be provided with
    something else, it does not limit the rights of self-
    organization or collective bargaining protected by the
    NLRA, and is not pre-empted by the Act.
    
    Id. at 758
    . Accordingly, the Supreme Court held that
    Massachusetts’ mandated-benefit law is not preempted
    by the NLRA. 
    Id.
    Just two years later, in Fort Halifax Packing Co. v. Coyne,
    
    482 U.S. 1
     (1987), the Supreme Court again addressed the
    issue of the relationship between “minimum labor stan-
    dards” and preemption. In Fort Halifax, an employer
    challenged a Maine statute requiring employers to
    provide severance pay to certain employees. 
    Id. at 5
    .
    Employees qualified if their employers laid off 100 or
    more employees, or relocated more than 100 miles away,
    so long as the employee had worked at the plant at least
    three years. 
    Id.
     Severance pay was not required if the
    employee accepted employment at the new plant location
    No. 07-3377                                               17
    or if a contract with the employee addressed the issue
    of severance pay. 
    Id.
     Fort Halifax argued the state law was
    preempted because, while it did not directly regulate
    economic activity, it indirectly undercut the collective
    bargaining process. 
    Id. at 20
    . The Supreme Court first
    noted that it had rejected in Metropolitan Life the argu-
    ment “that a State’s establishment of minimum substan-
    tive labor standards undercuts collective bargaining . . . .”
    
    Id. at 20
    . The Court then explained its holding in Metropoli-
    tan Life, noting, among other things “that the NLRA is
    concerned with ensuring an equitable bargaining
    process, not with the substantive terms that may emerge
    from such bargaining.” 
    Id.
    After the Court in Fort Halifax further explained Metro-
    politan Life, the Court stated that
    [i]t is true that the Maine statute gives employees
    something for which they otherwise might have to
    bargain. That is true, however, with regard to any
    state law that substantively regulates employment
    conditions. Both employers and employees come to
    the bargaining table with rights under state law that
    form a “backdrop” for their negotiations.
    
    Id. at 21
    . The Court rejected the claim of preemption,
    stating “the mere fact that a state statute pertains to
    matters over which the parties are free to bargain cannot
    support a claim of pre-emption, for there is nothing in the
    NLRA . . . which expressly forecloses all state regulatory
    powers with respect to those issues . . . that may be the
    subject of collective bargaining.” 
    Id. at 21-22
     (internal
    quotation omitted).
    18                                              No. 07-3377
    The Supreme Court in Fort Halifax concluded that the
    Maine statute “is not pre-empted by the NLRA, since its
    establishment of a minimum labor standard does not
    impermissibly intrude upon the collective-bargaining
    process.” 
    Id. at 23
    .
    The Supreme Court’s decisions in Metropolitan Life and
    Fort Halifax stand for several propositions. First, the NLRA
    is concerned primarily with establishing an equitable
    process for bargaining, and not the substantive terms of
    bargaining. Fort Halifax, 
    482 U.S. at 20
    ; Metropolitan Life,
    
    471 U.S. at 753-54
    . Second, a state law is not preempted by
    the NLRA merely because it regulates a mandatory
    subject of bargaining. Fort Halifax, 
    482 U.S. at 21
    ; Metro-
    politan Life, 
    471 U.S. at 757
    . And third, the NLRA does
    not preempt a state law which “establishes a minimum
    labor standard that does not intrude upon the collective-
    bargaining process.” Fort Halifax, 
    482 U.S. at 7
    ; see also
    Metropolitan Life, 
    471 U.S. at 754-55
     (“No incompatibility
    exists, therefore, because federal rules designed to
    restore the equality of bargaining power, and state or
    federal legislation that imposes minimal substantive
    requirements on contract terms negotiated between
    parties to labor agreements, at least so long as the purpose
    of the state legislation is not incompatible with these
    general goals of the NLRA.”).
    Against this backdrop, then, we return to the parties’
    arguments. As noted above, Congress Plaza claims that
    the Attendant Amendment is preempted by Machinists
    because it “intrudes on the parties’ collective bargaining
    process” and alters the “free play of economic forces.” In
    No. 07-3377                                                19
    response, based on Metropolitan Life and Fort Halifax,
    appellees claim that the Attendant Amendment is a
    minimum labor standard and is thus not preempted.
    Congress Plaza rejects this characterization of the Atten-
    dant Amendment (as a minimum labor standard), relying
    on this court’s decision in Cannon.
    In Cannon, a gravediggers’ union, a union member, and
    union leaders sued the State of Illinois, claiming that the
    Burial Rights Act was preempted by the NLRA and
    therefore violated the Supremacy Clause of the Constitu-
    tion. Cannon, 
    33 F.3d at 881
    . The Burial Rights Act re-
    quired cemeteries’ management and labor unions to agree
    to establish a pool of workers who would provide reli-
    giously required interments during a labor dispute. 
    Id. at 882
    . Additionally, the Burial Rights Act provided that
    “[t]he failure of a cemetery authority or a labor union to
    negotiate in good faith to establish a pool of workers as
    provided [in the Act] constitutes a willful violation of
    this Section,” in which case the court shall “grant appro-
    priate relief, including . . . an award of attorney’s fees and
    the imposition of a fine not to exceed $1,000 for each
    interment which is found to have been delayed in viola-
    tion of this Section.” 
    Id.
     at 882 n.1 (quoting 820 ILCS
    135/2.1). After setting forth the governing law, this court
    held that the Burial Rights Act was preempted by both
    Garmon preemption and Machinists preemption. 
    Id. at 885
    .
    We explained that “the Burial Rights Act is a direct intru-
    sion by the state into the collective bargaining process.
    The Burial Rights Act purports to regulate a particular
    term of the bargaining process—that of a pool of work-
    ers—and, further requires the parties to actually agree on
    20                                               No. 07-3377
    a particular pool of workers or face sanctions at the
    hands of the Illinois courts.” 
    Id. at 884
    . The court in Cannon
    held “the NLRA does not tolerate this kind of invasion by
    a state into the collective bargaining process. . . .” 
    Id.
    Cannon further held that the Burial Rights Act was pre-
    empted by Machinists, because it “intrude[d] on the
    collective bargaining process in a variety of ways; it orders
    the parties to negotiate as to a specific substantive condi-
    tion—that of a pool of workers to perform interments
    during labor disputes. And, more invasive, the Burial
    Rights Act orders the parties to agree on a pool of workers,
    or face sanctions for a failure to do so.” 
    Id. at 885
    .
    Appellees argue in response that Cannon is distinguish-
    able because the statute at issue in Cannon, the Burial
    Rights Act, required the parties to bargain collectively over
    the issue of a pool of workers, whereas the Attendant
    Amendment does not mandate bargaining, but instead
    establishes a minimum labor standard which does not
    interfere with the collective bargaining process. However,
    this is a distinction without a difference. As the Supreme
    Court recently explained, “[i]n NLRA pre-emption cases,
    judicial concern has necessarily focused on the nature of
    the activities which the States have sought to regulate,
    rather than on the method of regulation adopted.” Brown,
    
    128 S.Ct. at 2414
     (internal quotations omitted). What a
    state cannot do directly, it also cannot do indirectly. 
    Id. at 2415
    .
    The question then is whether the Attendant Amendment
    establishes a minimum labor standard that does not
    interfere with collective bargaining. If so, then the regula-
    No. 07-3377                                                    21
    tion (direct or indirect) is permissible. To address whether
    the Attendant Amendment establishes a minimum
    labor standard, we turn again to the Supreme Court.
    Unfortunately, though, the Supreme Court’s guidance is
    sparse. In Metropolitan Life, the Court merely noted that
    minimum labor standards “affect union and nonunion
    employees equally, and neither encourage nor dis-
    courage the collective-bargaining processes that are the
    subject of the NLRA.” 471 U.S. at 755. The Court added
    that minimum labor standards have only “the most
    indirect effect on the right of self-organization estab-
    lished in the Act . . . [and] are not laws designed to en-
    courage or discourage employees in the promotion of
    their interests collectively . . . .” Id. (quoting Barrentine, 450
    U.S. at 739 (emphasis in the original)).
    While the Attendant Amendment facially affects union
    and nonunion employees equally, for several reasons
    we conclude that it does not constitute a genuine mini-
    mum labor standard. First, unlike the statutes at issue in
    Metropolitan Life and Fort Halifax, the Attendant Amend-
    ment is not a statute of general application. In Metropolitan
    Life, the state law at issue did not regulate employment,
    but rather regulated insurance policies and it applied to
    all “general health-insurance polic[ies]” and “any benefit
    plans.” Metropolitan Life, 
    471 U.S. at 730
    . Significantly, in
    Metropolitan Life, the Court characterized the law as one
    of general application, stating: “Congress apparently did
    not consider the question of whether state laws of general
    application affecting terms of collective-bargaining agree-
    ments subject to mandatory bargaining were to be pre-
    empted.” 
    Id. at 753
     (emphasis added). See also Livadas, 512
    22                                               No. 07-3377
    U.S. at 123 n.17 (stating that “Congress is understood to
    have legislated against a backdrop of generally applicable
    [state] labor standards”). In Fort Halifax, the state’s sever-
    ance statute applied to all employers who laid off 100
    or more employees (or relocated 100 or more miles away).
    Fort Halifax, 
    482 U.S. at 5
    . While not universal in applica-
    tion (since it only applied to larger layoffs or distant
    relocations), the statute still had a very broad application.
    See, e.g., Carpenters Local Union No. 26 v. U.S. Fidelity &
    Guar. Co., 
    215 F.3d 136
    , 145 (1st Cir. 2000) (stating, in the
    context of ERISA preemption, that a law of general ap-
    plication “applies to a sufficiently broad, sufficiently
    generalized universe of situations”).
    Other circuits likewise characterize “minimum labor
    standards” as laws of general application. See Chamber of
    Commerce v. Bragdon, 
    64 F.3d 497
    , 503 (9th Cir. 1995) (“This
    is also not the type of regulation of general application
    that assures that certain coverage provisions be included
    in all health insurance contracts, such as in Metropolitan
    Life; nor is it the type of regulation seeking to alleviate a
    particular hardship such as plant closings that affect the
    employees and the community.”); Barnes v. Stone Container
    Corp., 
    942 F.2d 689
    , 692 (9th Cir. 1991) (“The Supreme
    Court has upheld state statutes which, although they
    affect employees covered by collective bargaining agree-
    ments, are statutes of general applicability and do not
    primarily ‘regulate relations between employees, their
    union, and their employer.’ ”) (emphasis in original)
    (quoting New York Tel. Co. v. New York State Dep’t. of Labor,
    
    440 U.S. 519
    , 533 (1979)); Hull v. Dutton, 
    935 F.2d 1194
    , 1198
    (11th Cir. 1991) (holding that Alabama’s longevity pay
    No. 07-3377                                                  23
    statute is not a “minimum labor standard” in part because
    the “statute applies only to its own employees and not
    to its citizens generally”). The Attendant Amendment,
    however, does not have the general applicability seen
    in these cases. Rather, it applies to only one occupation
    (room attendants), in one industry (the hotel industry),
    in one county (Cook county).7 These limitations distin-
    guish the Attendant Amendment materially from the
    statutes of general application considered in Metro-
    politan Life and Fort Halifax.
    The appellees argue that minimum labor standards
    that apply only to particular occupations, industries or
    categories of employers have survived preemption chal-
    lenge, citing a series of cases. See Appellee Br. at 20-21
    citing among others, Fort Halifax, 
    482 U.S. at 5, 20
     (plant
    closing law that applied to layoffs with 100 or more
    employees not preempted); Dillingham v. Sonoma County,
    
    190 F.3d 1034
    , 1041 (9th Cir. 1999) (minimum standards
    that applied only to apprentices in skilled construction
    trades not preempted); Viceroy Gold Corp. v. Aubry, 
    75 F.3d 482
    , 485, 490 (9th Cir. 1996) (overtime regulation
    applying only to miners not preempted); Nat. Broadcasting
    Corp. v. Bradshaw, 
    70 F.3d 69
    , 71-72 (9th Cir. 1995) (Califor-
    nia regulation applying only to broadcast employees not
    preempted); and Wash. Serv. Contractors Coalition v.
    7
    The statute by its terms applies to any county with a popula-
    tion of three million or more, but as noted above, out of
    102 counties, only Cook county has the requisite number of
    residents.
    24                                                 No. 07-3377
    District of Columbia, 
    54 F.3d 811
    , 819 (D.C. Cir. 1995).8 The
    appellees further rely on the Ninth Circuit’s decision
    in Associated Builders & Contractors of So. Cal., Inc. v. Nunn,
    
    356 F.3d 979
    , 990 (9th Cir. 2004), wherein the court
    stated that “state substantive labor standards, including
    minimum wages, are not invalid simply because they
    apply to particular trades, professions, or job classifica-
    tions rather than the entire labor market.”
    Unlike these cases, though, the Attendant Amendment
    is not just limited by trade—it is also limited by location;
    the Attendant Amendment is a state statute that applies
    only in one county in Illinois—Cook county. That fact
    distinguishes this case from the series of cases cited by
    Appellees, including Nunn; the Attendant Amendment
    is not just limited to a particular trade, profession, or job
    classification; it is also a state statute limited to only one
    of Illinois’ 102 counties.
    Moreover, we find the Ninth Circuit’s decision in
    Bragdon better reasoned. In Bragdon, 
    64 F.3d 497
    , the
    Chamber of Commerce sued a California county and
    county officials, challenging an ordinance that required
    8
    Appellees noted parenthetically that Washington Serv. Contrac-
    tors, 
    54 F.3d 811
    , held a “local ordinance applying only to
    janitorial contractors not preempted.” Appellee Br. at 21.
    Contrary to Appellees’ assertion, however, the statute at issue
    in Washington Serv. Contractors, 
    54 F.3d 811
     was not limited
    to janitorial contractors, but applied to persons who performed
    “food, janitorial, maintenance, or nonprofessional health care
    services.” 
    Id. at 814
    .
    No. 07-3377                                              25
    employers to pay “prevailing wages” to employees on
    private construction projects costing over $500,000. Id. at
    498. The Ordinance stated that its purpose was “to pro-
    mote safe construction, minimize the risk of accidents on
    industrial projects, prevent erosion of the wage scale,
    and alleviate the burden on the County’s health and
    welfare services and law enforcement, caused by low-paid
    workers.” Id. The “prevailing wages” were defined by
    the California Department of Industrial Relations, which
    determined the “prevailing wage” “by reference to estab-
    lished collective bargaining agreements within the local-
    ity.” Id. at 498-99. More specifically, “[t]he Director
    uses formulas that average the wages and benefits for
    each craft pursuant to collective-bargaining agreements
    applicable in each labor market.” Id. at 502. Under the
    Ordinance, construction companies were required to
    agree to pay the state-determined prevailing wage
    before the County would issue a building permit. Id. at 499.
    The Chamber of Commerce argued that the Ordinance
    was preempted by the NLRA. Id. The county responded
    that the prevailing wage ordinance was a “minimum
    labor standard” and as such was not preempted. After
    explaining general preemption principles, the Machinists
    doctrine, and summarizing the Supreme Court’s decisions
    in Metropolitan Life and Fort Halifax, the Ninth Circuit
    held that the Ordinance establishing the prevailing wage
    for construction workers was preempted by Machinists.
    Id. at 504. In so holding, the Ninth Circuit concluded that
    the ordinance was “also very different from a minimum
    wage law, applicable to all employees, guaranteeing a mini-
    mum hourly rate.” Bragdon, 
    64 F.3d at 502
     (emphasis
    26                                                  No. 07-3377
    added). The Bragdon court also stressed that the
    Ordinance at issue was “much more invasive . . . than
    the isolated statutory provisions of general application
    approved in Metropolitan Life and Fort Halifax.” 
    Id.
     The
    court in Bragdon reasoned:
    This is also not the type of regulation of general appli-
    cation that assures that certain coverage provisions
    be included in all health insurance contracts, such as
    in Metropolitan Life; nor is it the type of regulation
    seeking to alleviate a particular hardship such as
    plant closings that affect the employees and the com-
    munity. This Ordinance, by contrast, sets detailed
    minimum wage and benefit packages, distinct for
    each craft involved in certain limited construction
    projects. This minimum varies from time-to-time as
    new averages are calculated. The district court noted
    that unlike the law upheld in Metropolitan Life, the
    Ordinance is more properly characterized as an ex-
    ample of an interest group deal in public-interest
    clothing.
    
    Id. at 503
     (internal quotation omitted).9
    9
    While the panel in Nunn expressed disagreement with some
    aspects of its Ninth Circuit colleagues’ earlier decision in
    Bragdon, see Nunn, 
    356 F.3d at 990
    , there were two distinguishing
    features in Bragdon that separated it from Nunn. As Nunn
    recognized, “Congress authorized states to establish apprentice-
    ship standards and to regulate the conditions governing the
    implementation of apprenticeship programs, whether the
    (continued...)
    No. 07-3377                                                  27
    Like the Bragdon court, we find the lack of general
    application in the Attendant Amendment significant. In
    exempting “minimum labor standards” from the preemp-
    tive force of the NLRA, Metropolitan Life and Fort Halifax
    both involved laws of general application and the
    Supreme Court has characterized “minimum labor stan-
    dards” as laws of general application. Metropolitan Life,
    
    471 U.S. at 753
    ; Fort Halifax, 
    482 U.S. at 5
    . The Attendant
    Amendment’s narrow scope distinguishes it from mini-
    mum labor standards which are not subject to preemp-
    tion, and places the Attendant Amendment in the “zone
    protected and reserved for market freedom.” Brown, 
    128 S.Ct. at 2412
     (quoting Building & Constr. Trades Council v.
    Ass’n. Builders & Contractors of Mass./R.I., Inc., 
    507 U.S. 218
    ,
    227 (1993)).
    The Attendant Amendment’s narrow scope of applica-
    tion also serves as a disincentive to collective bargaining.
    As the Supreme Court explained in Metropolitan Life, a
    minimum labor standard should “neither encourage nor
    discourage the collective-bargaining process that are the
    9
    (...continued)
    apprentices were working on public or private projects,” and
    this “differentiates California’s apprenticeship regulations
    from the Contra Costa County ordinance at issue in Bragdon.”
    Nunn, 
    356 F.3d at 990-91
    . The court in Nunn further distin-
    guished Bragdon, reasoning “[s]econd and equally important,
    unlike in the case of the Contra Costa County ordinance at issue
    in Bragdon, here contractors may completely avoid the ap-
    plicability of the California apprenticeship regulations” by not
    hiring apprentices. 
    Id. at 991
    .
    28                                                     No. 07-3377
    subject of the NLRA.” 471 U.S. at 755. Yet by passing a
    statute with such a narrow focus (one occupation, in one
    industry, in one county), there seems to be a disincentive
    to collective bargaining and instead encouragement for
    employers or unions1 0 to focus on lobbying at the state
    capital instead of negotiating at the bargaining table.1 1
    The Ninth Circuit explained this phenomenon in
    Bragdon, 
    64 F.3d 497
     (9th Cir. 1995). As noted above, in
    10
    Unite Here lobbied for the Attendant Amendment. The
    appellees argue its lobbying is irrelevant, because “[f]ederal
    preemption doctrine evaluates what legislation does, not why
    legislators voted for it or what political coalitions led to its
    enactment.” Appellee Br. at 27 (quoting Northern Ill. Chapter of
    Assoc. Builders & Contractors v. Lavin, 
    431 F.3d 1004
    , 1007 (7th Cir.
    2005)). We agree that Unite Here’s lobbying is irrelevant,
    but what is relevant is that the law discourages collective
    bargaining.
    11
    The legislative debate shows that several state legislators
    recognized this incentive. See, e.g., IL S. Tran. 2005 Reg. Sess. No.
    44, Senator Roskam (“These folks, if they want to win fair and
    square, by golly go negotiate. Put it on the table and negotiate.
    Look one another in the eye and bargain. Say we’re not going
    to do this job unless you give us these fifteen minutes or twenty
    minutes or have our smoke breaks or take a diet Coke break or
    whatever you want to do, but we ought not do this.”); IL S. Tran.
    2005 Reg. Sess. No. 45, Senator Pankau (“The main item in
    this particular bill is this is a bargainable issue. It has been
    bargained before. It has been presented many times before
    this particular labor union. So, why are—if they can’t get it
    in their own negotiations, why are they coming down here to
    us to put it into law?”).
    No. 07-3377                                             29
    Bragdon, the Ninth Circuit struck an Ordinance estab-
    lishing a prevailing wage for certain private construction
    projects. 
    Id. at 498
    . In striking the Ordinance, the Ninth
    Circuit noted that the same or similar justifications for
    the exercise of police power in one business or industry
    “could be advanced for most any business or industry.” 
    Id. at 504
    . The Ninth Circuit recognized the impact, stating:
    A precedent allowing this interference with the free
    play of economic forces could be easily applied to
    other businesses or industries in establishing
    particular minimum wage and benefit packages.
    This could redirect efforts of employees not to
    bargain with employers, but instead, to seek to set
    minimum wage and benefit packages with political
    bodies. This could invoke defensive action by em-
    ployers seeking to obtain caps on wages in various
    businesses or industries. This could be justified as an
    exercise of police power on community welfare
    grounds of lowering construction costs to attract
    business to the area or lowering costs to consumers
    so as to make products or services more available to
    the general public. This substitutes the free-play of
    political forces for the free play of economic forces
    that was intended by the NLRA.
    
    Id. at 504
    .
    Additionally, while on its face this law applies to union
    and non-union employees equally, the statute’s narrow
    application equates more to a benefit for a bargaining unit
    than an individual protection. While not all room atten-
    dants in Cook county are unionized, by regulating only one
    30                                              No. 07-3377
    county the state makes it possible to target union-heavy
    counties (or union-light counties), and thus reward (or
    punish) union activity. Illinois’ approach further allows
    non-union employees to benefit from the bargaining of the
    union which took place, not at the bargaining table, but at
    the legislature. In Bragdon, the Ninth Circuit held that
    Machinists preempted an Ordinance which “targets partic-
    ular workers in a particular industry and is developed
    and revised from the bargaining of others, affects the
    bargaining process in a way that is incompatible with
    the general goals of the NLRA.” Bragdon, 
    64 F.3d at 504
    .
    The One Day Rest in Seven Act further shows that the
    Attendant Amendment is not a true minimum labor
    standard. As noted above, prior to passage of the Atten-
    dant Amendment, the One Day Rest in Seven Act already
    established a minimum labor standard for breaks, requir-
    ing employers to provide one unpaid twenty-minute
    meal break, although this mandate did “not apply to
    employees for whom meal periods are established
    through the collective bargaining process.” 820 ILCS 140/3.
    That minimum labor standard still applies in Illinois, but
    the Attendant Amendment sets a higher standard. Illinois
    argues that there is no reason that it cannot increase the
    minimum, but that is not what Illinois did. Rather, Illinois
    retained its minimum labor standard and crafted a
    higher standard for a specific occupation, in a specific
    industry, in a specific county. In explaining minimum
    labor standards, the Supreme Court spoke of the laws as
    establishing a “backdrop” for their negotiations. Fort
    Halifax, 
    482 U.S. at 21
    . The One Day Rest in Seven Act
    established such a state-wide backdrop, while the Atten-
    No. 07-3377                                               31
    dant Amendment overrode the local bargaining process
    by imposing confining requirements on one occupation,
    in one industry, in one county.
    Moreover, the One Day Rest in Seven Act exempts from
    coverage employees covered by a collective bargaining
    agreement that provides for break rooms and meal
    breaks. The Attendant Amendment does not contain a
    similar exemption. As the Supreme Court explained in
    Fort Halifax, “[t]he fact that the parties are free to devise
    their own severance pay arrangements . . . strengthens
    the case that the statute works no intrusion on collec-
    tive bargaining [because the State] has sought to balance
    the desirability of a particular substantive labor standard
    against the right of self-determination regarding the terms
    and conditions of employment.” Fort Halifax, 
    482 U.S. at 22
    .
    While a “statute that permits no collective bargaining on a
    subject [may] escape NLRA preemption,” 
    id.,
     when the
    parties are not free to devise their own arrangement
    preemption applies because the statute intrudes on the
    collective bargaining process. That is especially true
    where a similar statute of general applicability allows for
    such bargaining, but the narrowly targeted law does not.
    Furthermore, the Attendant Amendment does not
    qualify as a “minimum” labor standard. “Minimum,” as
    used by the Supreme Court, implies a low threshold. In
    fact, in Metropolitan Life, the Supreme Court spoke of a
    state or federal legislation that imposes “minimal sub-
    stantive requirements on contract terms negotiated be-
    tween parties to labor agreements.” 471 U.S. at 754. The
    Supreme Court also spoke of minimum labor standards
    32                                                      No. 07-3377
    as forming the backdrop for negotiations, Fort Halifax,
    
    482 U.S. at 21
    , again indicating a low-threshold law which
    serves as a floor. Our sister circuits have likewise read
    “minimum labor standard” as a minimal substantive
    impact on contracts. See Bragdon, 
    64 F.3d at 500
     (stating
    that “[w]hen a state law establishes a minimal employ-
    ment standard not inconsistent with the general legislative
    goals of the NLRA, it conflicts with none of the purposes
    of the Act”) (emphasis in original); Hull, 
    935 F.2d at 1198
    (noting that “[a]lthough the Supreme Court did not
    define what it considered to be a ‘minimum labor stan-
    dard,’ ” such statutes are “valid and unexceptional
    exercise[s] of the [state’s] police power,” and a state
    “longevity pay statute is not such a beast”) (internal
    quotation omitted). The Attendant Amendment is much
    more than a mere backdrop to negotiations because it
    establishes terms of employment that would be very
    difficult for any union to bargain for. Specifically, in
    addition to the requirement for two paid fifteen-minute
    breaks and an unpaid thirty-minute lunch break, the
    Attendant Amendment creates a presumption of retalia-
    tion and shifts the burden of proof to the employer. 1 2 See
    12
    Specifically, 820 ILCS 140/31.(g) provides: “It is unlawful for
    any employer or an employer’s agent or representative to take
    any action against any person in retaliation for the exercise
    of rights under this Section. In any civil proceeding brought
    under this subsection (f), if the plaintiff establishes that he or she
    was employed by the defendant, exercised rights under this
    Section, or alleged in good faith that the defendant was not
    (continued...)
    No. 07-3377                                                   33
    820 ILCS 140/3.1. We are aware of no law or contract
    that establishes such a shifting of the burden of proof, nor
    which requires proof from the employer that the “sole
    reason,” 
    id.,
     for any disciplinary conduct was a legitimate
    business reason. Moreover, this presumption and the
    shifting of the burden of proof applies indefinitely; it
    does not matter how long ago it was that an employee
    exercised rights under the Attendant Amendment or
    alleged the employer was not complying with the terms
    of the Attendant Amendment. Once either occurs the
    defendant-employer will from then on have the burden
    of proof.13
    12
    (...continued)
    complying with this Section, and was thereafter terminated,
    demoted, or otherwise penalized by the defendant, then a
    rebuttable presumption shall arise that the defendant’s action
    was taken in retaliation for the exercise of rights established
    by this Section. To rebut the presumption, the defendant must
    prove that the sole reason for the termination, demotion, or
    penalty was a legitimate business reason.” Thus, for instance,
    if a hotel fired a room attendant because the room attendant
    failed to clean the required daily quota of rooms, but the room
    attendant alleged that the real reason for his or her termination
    was that he or she had taken the statutorily mandated breaks,
    820 ILCS 140/3.1(g) creates a presumption of retaliation. The
    burden of proof would then shift to the hotel to prove that the
    sole reason for the termination was “a legitimate business
    reason.”
    13
    At oral argument, Unite Here’s attorney stated that the
    presumption only applies if the employee is disciplined within
    (continued...)
    34                                               No. 07-3377
    In addition to shifting the burden of proof to the em-
    ployer, the Attendant Amendment provides that, along
    with back pay and reinstatement, an employee
    terminated in violation of the Attendant Amendment
    “shall recover treble his or her lost normal daily compensa-
    tion and fringe benefits, together with interest thereon,
    and any consequential damages suffered by the em-
    ployee.” The Attendant Amendment further mandates
    the payment of costs and attorney’s fees. 820 ILCS
    140/3.1(h). These statutory provisions can in no sense be
    considered “minimal.” Cf. Brown, 
    128 S.Ct. at 2410-12, 2416, 2422
     (holding that California statute which prohibited
    employers that received state funds from using the funds
    “to assist, promote, or deter union organizing,” was
    preempted by Machinists, because the “formidable en-
    forcement scheme,” including recovery of treble dam-
    ages, attorney’s fees, and costs, “put considerable
    pressure on an employer either to forgo his free speech
    right to communicate his views to his employees, or else
    to refuse the receipt of any state funds”) (internal quotation
    omitted). This is especially true when considered in light
    of what Illinois considered an appropriate minimum for
    13
    (...continued)
    ninety days of asserting that his employer is not complying
    with the terms of the Attendant Amendment. However, follow-
    ing oral argument, Unite Here’s attorney submitted a letter to
    correct this misstatement, confirming that the Attendment
    Amendment in fact does not contain any time limitation on the
    presumption of retaliation, as Congress Plaza’s attorney had
    maintained during oral argument.
    No. 07-3377                                             35
    employers in the remaining 101 counties in the One Day
    Rest in Seven Act—one unpaid twenty-minute break and
    no shifting of the burden of proof.
    In response, Illinois argues that “minimum” does not
    imply a low threshold, but merely is whatever “minimum”
    the State decides is appropriate. This argument clashes
    with the Supreme Court’s terminology, i.e., “minimal
    substantive requirements on contract terms negotiated
    between parties to labor agreements.” Metropolitan Life,
    
    471 U.S. at 754-55
     (emphasis added). This argument also
    cannot prevail in the circumstances of this case where
    Illinois had adopted one truly minimal requirement of
    general application, but an exponentially higher mandate
    for a specific occupation, in a specific industry, in one
    county.
    Illinois also claims that because Machinists preemption
    is concerned with the process and not the substantive
    terms of the bargain, the substantive requirements of the
    Attendant Amendment are irrelevant. Illinois is correct
    that “[t]he NLRA is concerned primarily with estab-
    lishing an equitable process for determining terms and
    conditions of employment, and not with particular sub-
    stantive terms of the bargain that is struck when the
    parties are negotiating from relatively equal positions.”
    Metropolitan Life, 471 U.S. at 753. However, merely because
    a state statute establishes a substantive requirement does
    not mean that it automatically avoids preemption. Rather,
    to avoid preemption the state’s minimum labor standard
    must not be incompatible with the goals of the NLRA.
    See Metropolitan Life, 
    471 U.S. at 757
    ; Fort Halifax, 
    482 U.S. at 23
    .
    36                                               No. 07-3377
    The more stringent a state labor substantive standard, the
    more likely it is that the state law interferes with the
    bargaining process. And as a standard becomes more
    stringent, the state, at a certain point, effectively sub-
    stitutes itself as the bargaining representative. As the
    Ninth Circuit explained in Bragdon:
    The Court has also clearly held that a state’s require-
    ment of “minimal substantive requirements” on
    contract terms is not such an interference with the bar-
    gaining process as to be pre-empted. There is no
    doubt that imposing substantive requirements does
    affect the bargaining process. Viewed in the extreme,
    the substantive requirements could be so restricted
    as to virtually dictate the results of the contract. The
    objective of allowing the bargaining process “to be
    controlled by the free-play of economic forces” can be
    frustrated by the imposition of substantive require-
    ments, as well as by the interference with the use of
    economic weapons. The question then becomes the
    extent of the substantive requirements that a state
    may impose on the bargaining process.
    Bragdon, 
    64 F.3d at 501
    .
    In Bragdon, the Ninth Circuit concluded that “the Ordi-
    nance [establishing a prevailing wage] affects the bargain-
    ing process in a much more invasive and detailed fashion
    than the isolated statutory provisions of general applica-
    tion approved in Metropolitan Life and Fort Halifax.” 
    Id. at 502
    . The court explained that the Ordinance is
    also very different from a minimum wage law, applica-
    ble to all employees, guarantying a minimum hourly
    No. 07-3377                                              37
    rate. This Ordinance provides for specific minimum
    wages and benefits to be paid to each craft and only
    to those workers who are engaged in the specific
    construction projects covered by the Ordinance. This
    is not a wage and benefit package that has been bar-
    gained for in any fashion by these construction em-
    ployers and employees, but rather is a minimum
    wage and benefit package that is promulgated by the
    Director of the Department of Industrial Relations of
    the State of California and that is developed by averag-
    ing the bargains struck by other employers and em-
    ployees.
    
    Id. at 502-03
    .
    Like the Ordinance at issue in Bragdon, the Attendant
    Amendment “affects the bargaining process in a much
    more invasive and detailed fashion than the isolated
    statutory provisions of general application approved in
    Metropolitan Life and Fort Halifax.” 
    Id. at 502
    . As noted
    above, the Attendant Amendment creates a presumption
    of retaliation that shifts not the burden of production, but
    the burden of proof. This shifting of the burden of proof
    applies indefinitely once an employee has either exer-
    cised rights under the Attendant Amendment or alleged
    in good faith that the employer is not complying with the
    terms of the Attendant Amendment. This stringent mea-
    sure impacts the ability of an employer to discipline or
    fire employees, pursuant to the terms of a collective
    bargaining agreement. Under Congress Plaza’s previous
    CBA, claims of breaches had to proceed through a care-
    fully crafted grievance procedure and if not resolved,
    38                                                No. 07-3377
    required the parties to submit to arbitration. (CBA at 30-
    32). By creating a private cause of action for retaliation
    which shifts the burden of proof to the employer indefi-
    nitely, the Attendant Amendment further “stands as an
    obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full
    purposes and objectives” of the NLRA. Livadas, 
    512 U.S. at 120
     (quoting Brown v. Hotel Employees, 
    468 U.S. 491
    , 501
    (1984)). The NLRA’s purposes, as stated in the “Findings
    and Declaration of Policy” in § 1 of the NLRA, 
    29 U.S.C. § 151
    , include, among other things, “encouraging practices
    fundamental to the friendly adjustment of industrial
    disputes arising out of differences as to wages, hours, or
    other working conditions . . . .” The Attendant Amend-
    ment does the exact opposite, encouraging litigation
    rather than resolution through the mechanism estab-
    lished by the CBA.
    Moreover, room attendants are typically paid on an
    hourly basis, but are required to complete a certain
    number of rooms within that time. See Ill. Hotel & Lodging
    Ass’n v. Ludwig, 
    869 N.E.2d at 846, 849
     (Ill. App. 2007)
    (“Hotel room attendants essentially work on a piece-rate
    system. Both union and nonunion hotels require room
    attendants to clean a quota of rooms each work shift.
    Although they are paid by the hour, room attendants are
    required to deliver a quantified amount of work during
    their shift and can be disciplined if they fail to do so.”).1 4
    14
    A court may “take judicial notice of historical documents,
    documents contained in the public record, and reports of
    (continued...)
    No. 07-3377                                                     39
    The Illinois legislature used this as a basis to support
    the Attendant Amendment, noting during the committee
    hearings that the quota system impacted “all hotel room
    attendants’ ability to take breaks.” Ill. Hotel & Lodging
    Ass’n v. Ludwig, No. 05CH13796, *10 (Circuit Court of
    Cook County, Illinois 2006) (citing Hearings on H.B. 3485
    Before the House Labor Committee). Given the pay and work
    structure of room attendants, mandating breaks affects
    the structure of the entirety of the employment agree-
    ment. To illustrate: Assume that Congress Plaza requires
    room attendants to clean and service eighteen rooms
    during each shift. Congress Plaza customarily provided
    room attendants one unpaid thirty-minute lunch break.
    Adding another thirty minutes of break-time is likely to
    prevent room attendants from completing the required
    eighteen-room quota. After all, if Congress Plaza believed
    that the average room attendant could clean or service
    eighteen rooms in less time, it would increase the
    number of rooms required to be cleaned or decrease the
    shift time. Thus, the Attendant Amendment’s mandated
    breaks not only increase break times, but interfere with
    14
    (...continued)
    administrative bodies . . . .” Menominee Indian Tribe of Wis. v.
    Thompson, 
    161 F.3d 449
    , 456 (7th Cir. 1998). Thus, we may take
    judicial notice of the state court decisions. In re Salem, 
    465 F.3d 767
    , 771 (7th Cir. 2006) (“We begin with the New York cases;
    we take judicial notice of these dockets and opinions.”). More-
    over, this court may “consider judicially noticed documents
    without converting a motion to dismiss into a motion for
    summary judgment.” Menominee Indian, 
    161 F.3d at 456
    .
    40                                              No. 07-3377
    the entire quota structure of Congress Plaza’s CBA.1 5 In
    fact, it appears from the hearings of the House Labor
    Committee that the legislature intended to alter the
    structure of the employment relationship between hotels,
    like Congress Plaza, and their employees. See Ill. Hotel &
    Lodging Ass’n v. Ludwig, No. 05CH13796 at *10 (Circuit
    Court of Cook County, Illinois 2006) (“Rather, the con-
    cerns expressed by the Legislature focused generally on
    all hotel room attendants’ ability to take breaks in an
    industry where each individual must clean a quota of
    rooms per day.”) (citing Hearings on H.B. 3485 Before the
    House Labor Committee). As the Supreme Court stated in
    Machinists, “[o]ur decisions . . . have made it abundantly
    clear that state attempts to influence the substantive
    terms of collective bargaining agreements are as incon-
    sistent with the federal regulatory scheme as are such
    attempts by the NLRB. . . .” Machinists, 
    427 U.S. at 153
    .
    The Ninth Circuit in Bragdon likewise found that a state
    law that impacted the broader labor agreement was
    preempted by the NLRA under Machinists because “it
    affects the bargaining process in a much more invasive and
    detailed fashion than the isolated statutory provisions
    of general application approved in Metropolitan Life and
    15
    This interference might be acceptable, if the Attendant
    Amendment was a law of general application, but because it
    targets the one specific industry—the very industry which has
    in place an efficiency standard setting minimal quotas—the
    Attendant Amendment becomes an interference with the
    collective bargaining process.
    No. 07-3377                                                 41
    Fort Halifax.” Bragdon, 
    64 F.3d at 502
    . The state law in
    Bragdon, as noted above, set a prevailing wage. The prevail-
    ing wage required a minimal amount that wages and
    benefits must total together, but also set the minimum
    amount that must be paid in wages. 
    Id.
     As the Bragdon
    court aptly recognized, this ordinance interfered with
    the collective bargaining process because if the em-
    ployer had agreed to a total compensation package that
    exceeded the Ordinance’s requirements, but had a wage
    component lower than that set by the Ordinance, “[t]his
    would place considerable pressure on the contractor
    and its employees to revise the labor agreement to reduce
    the benefit package and increase the hourly wages in
    order to remain competitive and obtain the contracts and
    jobs . . . .” 
    Id.
     Likewise, in Bechtel Construction, Inc. v.
    United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America, 
    812 F.2d 1220
     (9th Cir. 1987), the Ninth Circuit held that a
    state law establishing a minimum wage scale for appren-
    tices was not a minimum labor standard, in part because
    “a set wage for apprentices would have required higher
    pay for all levels in the trade, in order to maintain the
    graded wage scale.” Id. at 1126. Thus, “[t]he right to
    bargain collectively of one group or another is harmed by
    the minimum wage for apprentices.” The Ninth Circuit
    further explained that “[u]nlike the minimum benefit
    standards in Metropolitan, the California requirements do
    not affect all workers equally, but concern only appren-
    tices.” Id. In turn, “[t]his accounts for the distorting effect
    that enforcement of the [wage] Standards could have on
    the bargaining process.” Id. Similarly, in this case, the
    Attendant Amendment affects not just break periods, but
    42                                                  No. 07-3377
    interferes with both the dispute-resolution structure of
    the employment relationship and with the structure of
    the quota system. This interference further disqualifies
    the Attendant Amendment from being a minimum
    labor standard.
    In sum, for numerous reasons, we conclude that the
    Attendant Amendment is not a minimum labor standard
    and is preempted by the NLRA. First, the Attendant
    Amendment is not a law of general application. Rather,
    the Attendant Amendment applies to one occupation, in
    one industry, in one county. This limited scope of the
    Attendant Amendment discourages collective bargaining
    by encouraging lobbying for targeted legislation
    applicable to the equivalent of a bargaining unit. The
    Attendant Amendment is further not a true “minimum”
    labor standard, as demonstrated when the statute’s
    provisions are juxtaposed against the minimal standard
    of general application currently in effect in Illinois, i.e., one
    unpaid twenty-minute break, and when considered in
    light of the formidable enforcement mechanism, in-
    cluding the treble damages and unprecedented shifting of
    the burden of proof to the employer. The Attendant
    Amendment further interferes with the objectives of the
    NLRA by overriding the dispute resolution mechanisms
    already in place and by interfering with the pay and quota
    structure established for room attendants. For all of these
    reasons, 1 6 we conclude the Attendant Amendment is
    16
    Congress Plaza also argues that the Attendant Amendment is
    preempted because it “unilaterally alters the parties’ collective
    (continued...)
    No. 07-3377                                                 43
    preempted by the Machinists doctrine. See Bragdon, 
    64 F.3d at 504
     (“Furthermore, this type of minimum labor
    standard enactment, which is not of general application,
    but targets particular workers in a particular industry and
    is developed and revised from the bargaining of others,
    affects the bargaining process in a way that is incompatible
    with the general goals of the NLRA.”). Because the Atten-
    dant Amendment is preempted by the Machinists
    doctrine, we need not determine whether Garmon preemp-
    tion would also apply. Likewise, we need not decide
    whether the Attendant Amendment violates Congress
    Plaza’s equal protection and due process rights. Accord-
    ingly, we reverse the judgment of the district court and
    remand this case to the district court for proceedings
    consistent with our ruling.
    16
    (...continued)
    bargaining agreement terms and conditions.” Appellant Reply
    Br. at 1. Congress Plaza believes that a state law which forces
    Congress Plaza to unilaterally change the terms and conditions
    of employment during a labor dispute violates federal law
    because, prior to impasse, the NLRA requires employers to
    “continue to apply the terms of the expired bargaining agree-
    ment.” Appellant Reply Br. at 3. We disagree. Had the
    Attendant Amendment truly represented a minimum labor
    standard that did not interfere with the collective bargaining
    process, the fact that the State law mandates different terms
    and conditions than those contained in an expired CBA would
    be irrelevant.
    44                                       No. 07-3377
    III.
    For the reasons stated above, we conclude that the
    Attendment Amendment is preempted by the NLRA under
    the Machinists doctrine. We R EVERSE and R EMAND for
    proceedings consistent with this opinion.
    12-15-08