Culinary union stages demonstration targeting Station Casinos

Culinary Local 226 on Thursday again took its efforts to organize workers at Station Casinos Inc. properties to the streets of Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Police Department Capt. Larry Burns said about 1,000 union members and supporters participated in a two-mile march from the Culinary headquarters at 1630 S. Commerce St. to Palace Station.

The demonstration culminated in the arrests of 100 people for blocking a Palace Station entrance, police said. Three police buses were on the scene to process the arrested demonstrators, who were charged with misdemeanors and released.

Thursday's march reprised a Feb. 17 union demonstration in front of Palace Station that yielded 22 arrests of union members.

Battling banners provided a visual back-and-forth at Thursday's demonstration. Before the late-afternoon march, three billboard trucks with banners reading "WE LOVE LOCALS, STATION CASINOS" trundled slowly down Commerce Street near the Culinary's headquarters.

By the time the arrests occurred, the trucks were parked at the protest site. Station Casinos also hung four banners on the side of a parking garage in 2500 block of South Teddy Drive that read "OUR HEART SETS US APART" and featured pictures of smiling local workers.

Several marchers in the protest, meanwhile, wore signs declaring the opposite: "STATION HATES LOCALS." A woman and a man near the front of the line wore nearly body-length heart-shaped signs featuring frowning faces and reading, "STATION FIRED LATINOS."

In a statement emailed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Station Casinos Vice President of Human Resources Valerie Murzl rebutted the claims of injustices against workers.

"The Culinary union's claims that we discriminate against our Hispanic team members are ridiculous blatant lies," she said. "There are no real facts or the Culinary union would file charges, sue or request a thorough investigation, not stage a media-stunt protest."

Murzl added that her company prides itself on treating workers with fairness and the utmost respect.

One local protester arrested Thursday was Omar Mendoza, who spent 14 years as food server for Sunset Station. He said he was fired Sept. 9, about six weeks after he wore a union support button to work.

"The reason I'm doing this tonight is that I was want to get my job back," he said. "I'm going to fight to get back to work. We will continue to organize until Station Casinos becomes a union shop."

Support for the union also came from out of state and out of labor.

Ken Weaver, a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 24 in Madison, Wis., marched with the Culinary representatives, saying, "We came out here to join with the struggle, to share the same battle that we are going through in Wisconsin."

Also along was Jonathan Klein, a rabbi and representative of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. He said, "I am here to support these workers who are facing injustices."

The Culinary has been trying unsuccessfully for about 15 years to unionize almost 13,000 workers at the 18 hotel-casinos operated by Station Casinos. Ken Liu, a Culinary research director, said the union's latest organizing campaign aimed at Station Casinos began in February 2010.

Even though Las Vegas is friendlier to unions than other areas of Nevada, those who follow economic trends or the casino industry don't expect the union's latest efforts to succeed.

"When a recession hits, everything slows down and employees are not nearly as prone to complain when their jobs are at risk," said Jeff Waddoups, an associate professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Waddoups explained that the union had pretty much "locked up the Strip" with some exceptions, and has turned its attention to the locals market.

"If a union is going to have more power economically, they are going to have to be successful with organizing the neighborhood casinos," he said.

Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at csieroty
@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.