The Culinary Workers Union slipped fliers under the doors of guests’ rooms at the Red Rock Resort in Summerlin last year, and local police cited two of its members for vagrancy.
Hotel staff spotted two union members sliding the fliers under doors on the hotel’s 12th floor on December 15, and called the police.
Police officers afterward found two union members in the hotel lobby holding folders containing more fliers. The pair were handcuffed, taken to the casino security office, and ticketed.
The Red Rock Resorts says the pair showed up after its attorney warned the union against having its members distribute materials on its properties.
The Culinary Workers Union says the casino never communicated its warning to the two members in question. Union attorney Tom Pitary also claims the district attorney’s office is taking orders from Station Casinos and intervening in a labor-organizing effort.
Yet, many Las Vegas-area casinos commonly file trespassing complaints against local pizza restaurants and other entities distributing promotional fliers and other materials without permission on their properties.
The district attorney said the fliers contain content that annoyed the casino’s owner, Red Rock Resorts dba Station Casinos. The content accused Stations Casinos of being Nevada’s worst violator of labor laws and other accusations.
The content, however, is not the issue, according to the district attorney. Instead, the two union members were inside a restricted hotel area that only can be accessed with a guest keycard.
Because the area was private and the locked doors required a keycard, the district attorney says the union members trespassed on the hotel’s property.
The Culinary Workers Union and the Bartenders Local 165 have been trying to organize the casino company’s 5,000 nongaming employees for several years.
