Station Casinos employees protest outside Culinary union office
About 100 supervisors from Station Casinos marched in front of the Culinary union’s downtown office for about an hour Sunday in a protest that Culinary Local 226 called a “publicity stunt” — the latest clash amid a decade-long labor fight between the two.
Station Casinos said in a weekend statement that the Culinary union “has refused to accept” that its employees at Palace Station and Boulder Station rejected the union last year.
“We despise union lies,” the group chanted Sunday as they marched, wearing teal shirts that read, “Respect their votes, leave team members alone.”
“No means no,” the chants continued.
April allegations
After employees signed petitions to reject the union, the National Labor Relations Board in April accused Station Casinos of unlawfully using the pandemic to undermine unions and influence employees to push for decertification.
Employees at neither property held a decertification vote – the process by which a union disbands – to leave Culinary, the union has said.
Cornele Overstreet, a regional director for the board, alleged in a 92-page complaint at the time that Station Casinos “engaged in a scheme to use layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine unions representing or seeking to represent their employees,” a release said.
A spokesman for Red Rock Resorts, Station Casinos’ parent company, said in a statement at the time that Station Casinos “rejects the biased and unfair allegations” of the labor board’s regional director.
Ahead of the Sunday protest, which began at 4 p.m., a Station Casinos spokesperson said in a statement that the company “is fighting back on behalf of its Team Members by challenging those charges.”
“The Company demands that the Culinary Union respect and stop trying to overturn the wishes of the Palace and Boulder Team Members,” the statement continued.
‘Leave us alone’
The Culinary union in a statement called the protest Sunday a “publicity stunt,” noting that it took place at a time when the union’s office was closed.
“Here, it seems that Station Casinos is simply trying to bring public attention to the wide-ranging allegations of legal misconduct it faces,” Geoconda Argüello-Kline, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said in the statement. “In our nearly nine decades of organizing, the Culinary Union has never seen company managers or supervisors picket — especially on their day off when it is 99 degrees outside. We hope that they stay hydrated and cool today.”
Hernan Andrade, director of internal maintenance for Red Rock Resort, said team members at his casino are “furious” with Culinary Union.
“We’re out here to send a message,” Andrade said at the Sunday protest. “A message to the union to just leave us alone.”
A trial on the complaint is scheduled to begin before a National Labor Relations Board judge on Aug. 31.
In a separate case, U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro ruled last month that Red Rock Resorts illegally influenced the outcome of a 2019 union election within the company.
The company was ordered to negotiate with the union for employees at Red Rock Resort.
Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Mike Shoro contributed to this report.
