Federal Panel Rules Against Station Casinos in Union Dispute

Posted on: June 19, 2024, 04:38h. 

Last updated on: June 19, 2024, 09:46h.

Ed Silverstein @casinoorgedsilv Read More

Expertise: Legal, Tribal Gaming.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled against Station Casinos in its continuing conflict with the Las Vegas-based Culinary Union.

In a ruling released on Monday, the panel said Station Casinos management must begin to bargain with the hospitality workers union over three gaming properties, including Red Rock Resort, Palace Station, and Boulder Station.

In addition, the ruling claims the company improperly convinced workers not to form a union and accused management of unfair labor practices. The NLRB ruled Red Rock Resorts’ Station Casinos undertook “extensive coercive and unlawful misconduct.”

It “stemmed from a carefully crafted corporate strategy intentionally designed at every step to interfere with employees’ free choice whether or not to select the [Culinary] Union as their collective-bargaining representative.”

The NLRB ruling concurred with an administrative law judge’s similar ruling in 2022.

Improper Threats, Promises

In response to the ruling, Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said it “affirms what we have been saying for years — that Station Casinos violated the law and the company must bargain with the union because of its unlawful actions that corrupted the prospect for a free and fair union election.”

Pappageorge further concurs with the NLRB that Station Casinos improperly made promises and threats to workers.

The federal government has ruled that Station Casinos’ Red Rock Casino committed massive labor law violations and that upper executives are implicated in a shameful scheme to defeat union democracy,” he said. “Station Casinos needs to stop breaking the law and treat its workers with respect.”

One worker, Henry Joyner, a former cook at Red Rock Casino, added in a statement, “I never felt like I was treated equally or fairly when I worked at Red Rock.”

“In 2019, I put on my Union button, and I wore it every day with pride. There is a reason why workers at Red Rock chose to be represented by the Culinary Union,” Joyner added. “I want a Union job where I am treated equally. Any discrimination against any worker in the gaming industry needs to stop.”

Company Likely to Appeal

Red Rock Resorts spokesman Michael Britt said the 2019 workers’ vote which rejected a union effort “was a fair outcome that reflected the wishes of a majority of the Red Rock Team Members then and reflects it now,” according to the Las Vegas Independent.

The NLRB’s decision “upheld the findings of its own NLRB hearing officer,” and was not unexpected, Britt added. The company is likely to file an appeal.

In April, more than half of the approximately 600 unionized workers at Sunset Station Hotel and Casino reportedly said they wanted to drop the Culinary Union as their labor representative.

Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, represent some 60K workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, and laundry and kitchen workers.

The unions recently reached five-year agreements for workers at multiple properties.