Dive Brief:
- The National Labor Relations Board upheld a litany of unfair labor practice charges against Red Rock Casinos this week, ordering the company to return to bargaining with union members, according to NLRB documents.
- In an 81-page decision, the NLRB detailed the charges against Red Rock, including threats to withhold benefits from workers who join the union and implicit threats of job loss if employees were to strike. The NLRB ordered the company to “cease and desist” threats immediately, as well as alert employees of their rights under labor law.
- The NLRB found that unfair labor practices “were planned and executed by Red Rock Casino and [parent company] Station Casinos’ top management and owners.” A Station Casinos representative told Hotel Dive that the company plans to appeal.
Dive Insight:
The NLRB’s decision affirms a previous one made by U.S. Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Wedekind in 2022, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The NLRB’s investigation found that Station Casinos introduced new benefits to employees only after union organizing was underway — and then threatened to withhold them from workers who joined the union. It also found that Station Casinos management threatened workers that union bargaining would be futile, with anti-union messaging posted throughout the property that “emphasized years of fruitless bargaining at Boulder and Place Stations.”
The decision ordered Station Casinos to “cease and desist” from these threats, as well as resume bargaining with the union. The NLRB also ordered Station Casinos to notify employees of their rights under labor law.
“We are reviewing the NLRB’s decision, but the fact that it upheld the findings of its own NLRB hearing officer was not unexpected, and we are likely to appeal,” a Station Casinos spokesperson told Hotel Dive. “Since the Red Rock election, a majority of the team members at each of [Station Casinos’] Palace Station, Boulder Station and Sunset Station properties have also rejected the Culinary Union. In fact, we are now bargaining with the Culinary Union only at one single property.”
In a statement, Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said: “This decision 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. Station Casinos needs to stop breaking the law and treat its workers with respect.”
The Culinary Union has been successful elsewhere in Las Vegas, where tens of thousands of hospitality workers have won “historic” wage increases in recent months.
