Union bedfellows

In a document that cuts and pastes language frequently heard from the Culinary union, the leadership of the Clark County Education Association now calls on its members to boycott local properties owned by Station Casinos to coerce management there to sign a union contract.

The announcement is interesting on several levels.

First, the teachers union frequently claims its actions are all "for the children." But under its "Smart Start" program, which partners each of its properties with a local public school, Station has donated $2.4 million to 70 high-risk elementary schools over the past decade. Do teachers seek to punish those who created "Smart Start" by leaving the sponsors less money to work with?

Second, the CCEA now states (parroting the Culinary) that Station has been "found guilty of 87 separate labor violations." In fact, an administrative judge last fall found 83 of 400 unfair labor practices alleged by the Culinary -- 21 percent -- to be worthy of forwarding to the pro-labor National Labor Relations Board, which has yet to hear, let alone find anyone guilty of anything. Most of the charges appear to be technical -- a misinformed supervisor telling an employee not to wear a union button while serving customers, etc.

But worst of all, the teachers union now aligns itself with a Culinary local that has not only been harassing businesses and individuals who have dealings with Station (see the nationwide full-court press against the UFC, which Station's Fertitta brothers control), but actually contacting convention organizers and conventioneers, attempting to get them to cancel events at Station properties.

If these Culinary tactics were to succeed, every property in town might have to move full-time employees back to the part-time board, or even lay them off. Tax revenues would fall again, and with them school funding.

It seems hard to believe a well-informed CCEA membership would support such a kamikaze approach.

Workers have a right to unionize, of course, and labor peace could be valuable to the city's economic recovery. But the solution needn't involve anyone contacting out-of-town conventioneers and urging them to stay away.

All that's needed is for the Culinary to collect signatures from 30 percent of the employees in any potential bargaining group and then to ask the NLRB to schedule a secret-ballot unionization election at that property. The fact that union officials have thus far declined to exercise this option -- resorting instead to these destructive tactics -- speaks volumes about how they believe they would fare in such a vote.