Non-gaming employees at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas rejected representation from Culinary Workers Local 226, becoming the first property operated by Station Casinos to vote against negotiating for a contract in the three years the labor group has been targeting the company.
Hours after the company announced the vote Saturday, the Culinary issued a statement saying the company violated federal labor law and interference with the election.
Station Casinos, which operates off-Strip resorts throughout the Las Vegas Valley, has been targeted for the past decade for organizing efforts by the Culinary. The union is Nevada’s largest labor organization and represents more than 60,000 guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, laundry and kitchen workers and bartenders at Strip and downtown properties.
Since 2016, the Culinary and its affiliate Bartenders Local 165 have been successful in holding secret ballot representation votes, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, at six Station Casino properties; Fiesta Rancho, Sunset Station, Boulder Station, Palace Station, Green Valley Ranch, and Palms.
However, contracts have yet to be negotiated and Red Rock Resorts, the corporate owners of Station Casinos, is challenging the election results in federal court.
In a statement Saturday, Red Rock Resorts said 84 percent of the eligible employees voted in the election, in which 54 percent rejected the organization effort.
“Our great team members have spoken, and we thank them for their support,” Red Rock General Manager Scott Nelson said in a statement. “We believe there is no better place to work in Las Vegas and these election results validate that belief.”
In a separate statement Saturday, Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Arguello-Kline, said Red Rock Resort “seriously interfered with workers’ right to a free and fair union election under federal law.”
She claimed the casino’s management told employees days before the election it was making its health plan premium-free and deductible-free. Also, the company announced increased contributions to workers’ 401(k) retirement accounts.
“The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly condemned these types of ploys as interfering with the conditions necessary for a fair election,” Arguello-Kline said. “We are confident that the NLRB will find the company’s schemes illegal and order Red Rock Casino to recognize the union and bargain a contract.”
Arguello-Kline accused Station Casinos of anti-union tactics and “refusing to recognize election results where workers voted overwhelmingly to unionize.”
Red Rock Resort, located in the western Las Vegas community of Summerlin, is considered the company’s flagship property.
The Culinary long claimed a majority of Station Casinos’ eligible workforce signed a petition favoring the union and advocated a card-check process, which allows employees to organize if a majority sign union provided cards.
The company opposed card check vote but wouldn’t stand in the way of a secret-ballot vote overseen by the NLRB.
In the past two months, when Democratic presidential candidates have participated in union sponsored town hall meetings with the membership, pointed comments have been directed toward Station Casinos.
Former Vice President Joe Biden told the Culinary members he wrote a letter to Red Rock Resorts CEO Frank Fertitta III in October, demanding the company negotiate a contract with its employees. He also returned a $5,000 campaign contribution from a Red Rock board member.
The union has publicized a September 2011 ruling against the company by an NLRB administrative law judge who found the casino operator committed 88 acts of unfair labor practices out of more than 400 claims. In January 2013, the NLRB said Station Casinos satisfied requirements imposed by the decision and closed the case.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgaming.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
