Station Casinos may be missing out on a prime cut of corporate welfare by refusing to bargain with union workers at the company’s Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.
The locals gaming giant, which has been hit the last few years with a landslide of pro-union votes across its Southern Nevada portfolio, has gone to federal court to try to fight the 2017 election that installed the Culinary Union as the collective bargaining agent for Palms housekeepers and most of its front-line hotel and wait staff.
The National Labor Relations Board, which oversaw the election and endorsed its result, says the company is breaking the law by refusing to enter contract negotiations with the union. Late last month more than 1,000 members of the Culinary and other unions picketed in front of the off-Strip property to try to push management to the table.
According to news reports, Station’s intransigence has Democrats in Congress concerned enough to hold up a change to the 2017 corporate tax cuts that would reward Station with a lump sum write-down of its ongoing $690 million remodeling of the Palms.
As written, the law provides for the tax break to be spread over several decades, a glitch that lawmakers are looking to fix. But 14 Democrats have sent a letter to the owners of Station Casinos, urging them to bargain with the Culinary Union. with Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, the fix could be in limbo.
