The National Labor Relations Board has slapped Station Casinos with a 92-page complaint charging the company with violating a raft of federal labor laws in a concerted effort to undermine union representation at its properties.
The complaint, a consolidation of 60 unfair labor practice cases filed with the board since September 2018, turns up the heat on a long-running battle between Station and Nevada gaming’s largest union, Culinary Local 226.
The local has won votes in most of Station’s 10 Las Vegas-area casinos but has yet to achieve a contract at any of them in the face of the company’s refusal to negotiate, a position that has resulted in several rulings finding the company in violation of the law, although to little effect so far.
The standoff has been successful in inducing employees at Boulder Station and Palace Station to petition to decertify their union votes, which the NLRB charges in the new complaint were “based on anti-union petitions that Station Casinos unlawfully encouraged employees to circulate and sign.”
In essence, the complaint alleges Station “engaged in a scheme to use layoffs during the Covid-19 pandemic to undermine unions representing or seeking to represent their employees,” according to a press statement.
The statement says Station didn’t bargain with employee unions prior to making sweeping job changes during and after the Covid shutdown last spring. Station laid off, fired, rehired and recalled employees, terminated their recall rights and benefits and implemented new health and safety standards “all without bargaining” with the unions.
The company did so “in a selective and discriminatory manner that was calculated to dilute union support among their employees.”
“Specifically, the complaint alleges that Station Casinos suggested to employees that their unions had been negligent in representing them during the Covid-19 pandemic, when, in reality, Station Casinos had unlawfully failed to give the unions timely notice of their unilateral actions and unlawfully failed and refused to bargain about them.”
Local 226 spokeswoman Bethany Khan characterized the complaint as “massive and unprecedented” and added that “If Station Casinos refuses to negotiate, they will face more severe legal consequences.”
Station responded with a statement criticizing the allegations as “biased and unfair.”
The company maintains that it supported its employees throughout the pandemic with pay during the closure, increased benefits, including a new company-paid retirement plan, free health insurance and upgrading more than 700 part-time employees to full time so they could receive benefits.
“Now, with a willing accomplice in (NLRB Regional Director Corneile Overstreet), the union is attempting to strip our team members of their democratic right to choose whether they want union representation or not,” the statement said. “They are mischaracterizing all the great things we have done for our team members as a negative because, as they claim, ‘It undermines the union.’”
The charges are now likely headed to an administrative law judge, who can recommend a cease-and-desist against the violations or dismiss the case. The NLRB will then determine whether remedies are required.
As of press time, no date had been set for the hearing.
