Worker Station

Four years ago, they took over half-a-billion dollars from Station Casinos

2007 LBO cash payments to Station Casinos company insiders:

• Blake Sartini and Delise Sartini (née Fertitta): $200,919,330
• Frank J. Fertitta III: $148,654,355
• Lorenzo J. Fertitta: $145,069,850

Also,

• Glenn Christenson: $51,889,130 
• Scott Nielsen $41,130,055 
• William Warner $39,825,510
• Richard Haskins $16,563,680  
• Thomas Friel $5,860,265
• James Nave, DVM $3,641,700
• Lowell Lebermann, Jr. $2,801,700
• Lee Isgur $2,205,000
• Robert E. Lewis $1,575,000

Since 2007, Station Casinos workers have not had a wage increase. The company has made insurance costs more expensive and stopped matching contributions to 401(k)s.  There is no job security for Station Casinos workers. And the company has told workers not to join the union.

Sign a petition to demand fair treatment for Station Casinos workers!

 

“Best Company to Work For” FAIL, again (UPDATED)

Why has Station Casinos failed to make Fortune Magazine’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For again, for the third year in a row?

In the 2007 buyout, thirteen top Station Casinos executives and owners paid themselves $660 million while saddling the company with billions of dollars of debt. This increased debt load made it difficult for the company to deal with the steep economic downturn in Las Vegas. It soon resorted to subcontracting out whole departments (reservations, uniform rooms) and customer-favorite coffee shops, putting hundreds of workers out of work. Since the buyout, the company had terminated more than 2,800 employees, cutting its workforce by over 20%, even though most of the top executives who benefited from the buyout have stayed in place and kept their jobs and their paychecks and perks.

Many workers have had enough and have demanded to be allowed to make their own decision about forming a union. The company responded by waging a brutal anti-union campaign, using alleged intimidation, harassment, surveillance and other union-busting tactics against its own employees. The government has charged the company with 201 violations of its employees’ right to participate in union activities, and the company is on trial in front of an National Labor Relations Board Administrative Judge.

It’s hardly a great workplace where employees, except those at the very top, cannot get affordable benefits and have no guarantee that you’ll have a job tomorrow no matter how long you’ve worked at the company. It cannot be a great place to work where management refuses to respect employees’ legal rights on the job. It’s no wonder Station Casinos has again failed to be named one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For.

 

$500 For (Some Of) You

Five Hundred Dollars. That’s an extra 6 CENTS PER HOUR if you had worked 40 hours per week for the last four years.

Over the last four years, UNION tipped workers on the Strip got $1.63 per hour in raises and UNION non-tipped workers on the Strip got $2.93 per hour in raises. A UNION tipped worker who had worked 40 hours per week for those years got a total of $6,313 more in wages. A UNION non-tipped worker who had worked 40 hours per week for those years got a total of $13,106 more in wages.

And these UNION workers still pay ZERO out of their paychecks for excellent family healthcare and are guaranteed a pension when they retire.

Meanwhile, in 2010, at Station Casinos:

• CEO Frank Fertitta III received $216,890 in “life insurance” benefits and $15,983 in “executive medical” benefits.
• Executive Vice President Scott Nielson received $21,679 in “supplemental long-term disability” benefits, $17,900 in “tax services” benefits, and $4,500 in “fitness training” benefits.
• Chief Operating Officer Kevin Kelley received $10,186 in “supplemental long-term disability” benefits, $9,391 in “club membership and fees” and $5,700 in “fitness training” benefits.
• The top five executives were paid a combined salary of $5,158,000.

 

 

Demonstrators Shut Down Two Lanes of Sahara While Over a Thousand Protest Station Casinos' Treatment and Firing of Latino Workers

Fired Latino workers from Station Casinos led members of the Culinary and Bartenders unions in the city’s largest civil disobedience in over a decade to protest the company’s treatment and firing of Latino workers on June 2, 2011.  The large protest came as Station Casinos completes the final stages of its bankruptcy restructuring. Over 1000 people rallied while 150 were arrested after they sat down in two Sahara Avenue traffic lanes in front of Palace Station near Interstate 15 and not far from the Las Vegas Strip.

The protest included street theater to draw attention to the company’s treatment of Latino workers, failure to provide wage increases and retirement contributions, and higher costs for worker health plans.

Station Casinos is the subject of the largest Unfair Labor Practice case ever filed against a Nevada gaming company by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Many of the government’s 201 charges against the company affect Latino workers. Eight of the ten worker organizers who have been fired by Station Casinos are Latino; two have since been reinstated.  Over 90 percent of the workers who were called by the government to testify against the company are Latino.

The government has charged the company with allegedly using tactics including harassment, threats, retaliatory firings and disciplines, and the solicitation of customer complaints to impede worker efforts to form a union.   The government’s seven-month prosecution of the company ended in May and, in a surprise move, Station Casinos called no witnesses in its defense.  During the course of the trial, the government’s charges against the company grew from 168 to 201 alleged violations of federal labor laws.  A decision in the case is expected later this year.

Teresa Debellonia was one of the workers fired by Station Casinos after she began exercising her right to form a union.  After the NLRB charged the company with allegedly retaliating against her because of her union activity and appearance as a government witness in the NLRB’s case against Station Casinos, the company reinstated her with back pay and no loss of seniority. “I am a mother and I want a better future for my children,” said Debellonia, a Guest Room Attendant at Green Valley Ranch Resort Casino. “I’m happy to be back at work, but I want Station Casinos to treat its workers equally and fairly.”

Since the 2007 management-led buyout allowed a small group of company insiders to take $660 million out of the company, workers at Station Casinos have not had a raise, have had the cost of their health insurance increased, have had no employer contribution to their 401k retirement accounts, and have seen the loss of thousands of jobs.

 

 

 

Is Station Casinos "pro-employee" because...

• It has allegedly violated your right to organize over 165 times, as charged by the U.S. Government in the largest ever Unfair Labor Practice case against a Nevada gaming company? 
• Over 80 percent of the workers affected by Station Casinos’ alleged illegal actions in the unfair labor practice case have been Latino?
• The company has made health benefits more expensive for you, stopped paying for your retirement savings, and has not given you a raise since it gave over half a BILLION dollars to top executives and directors in 2007? 
• After having fired 2,800 employees since 2007, it is now  hiring 1,000 new workers, half of whom will be part-timers with no medical benefits, no paid vacation, and no paid holidays?

“Best Company to Work For” FAIL, again

Why has Station Casinos failed to make Fortune Magazine’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For again, for the third year in a row?

In the 2007 buyout, thirteen top Station Casinos executives and owners paid themselves $660 million while saddling the company with billions of dollars of debt. This increased debt load made it difficult for the company to deal with the steep economic downturn in Las Vegas. It soon resorted to subcontracting out whole departments (reservations, uniform rooms) and customer-favorite coffee shops, putting hundreds of workers out of work. Since the buyout, the company had terminated more than 2,800 employees, cutting its workforce by over 20%, even though most of the top executives who benefited from the buyout have stayed in place and kept their jobs and their pays and perks.

Many workers have had enough and have demanded to be allowed to make their own decision about forming a union. The company responded by waging a brutal anti-union campaign, using alleged intimidation, harassment, surveillance and other union-busting tactics against its own employees. The government has charged the company with over 165 violations of its employees’ right to participate in union activities, and the company is on trial in front of an National Labor Relations Board Administrative Judge.

It’s hardly a great workplace where employees, except those at the very top, cannot get affordable benefits and have no guarantee that you’ll have a job tomorrow no matter how long you’ve worked at the company. It cannot be a great place to work where management refuses to respect employees’ legal rights on the job. It’s no wonder Station Casinos has again failed to be named one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For.

 

The Holiday Season Is Here!

Three years ago this time, 13 people at the top of Station Casinos got $660 MILLION from the company. How about the rest of us?

• When are we going to get our first wage increase in three years? 
• When will we have free health insurance for our families?
• When will Station Casinos stop giving away our jobs to outside companies ?
• Will all the terminated coffee shop workers get their jobs back — with seniority and benefits — when the company brings back its own coffee shops? 
• When will we have a company-paid pension?
• When will Station Casinos let us freely exercise our right to join a Union?

Wall Street Stations

THEY’VE TAKEN THEIR SHARE...Station Casinos will tell you it’s time to celebrate now because it is coming out of bankruptcy soon. It is indeed time to celebrate for some people.

STATION EXECUTIVES will not have to give back the hundreds of millions of dollars they got from the 2007 buyout that caused the company to go bankrupt. And they will most likely keep their jobs even after the bankruptcy reorganization.

THEIR WALL STREET BACKERS — Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase — will not give back the hundreds of millions of dollars in interest payments they have collected from Station since the buyout. And, after the bankruptcy reorganization, they will own half the company and continue to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in interest from Station!

...IT’S OUR TURN NOW! WE WANT WHAT UNION CASINO WORKERS IN LAS VEGAS HAVE!

• GUARANTEED RAISES. We haven’t gotten a raise from Station Casinos for three years now. On the Strip, Union housekeepers got a total raise of over $1.20 per hour and Union food servers got more than $0.60 an hour since we got our last raise.
• GENEROUS HEALTH CARE PLAN. No paycheck deductions to cover you, your spouse, and your children through the largest network of providers in Las Vegas. Domestic partners covered. Pre-existing conditions covered. Includes dental, vision, and prescription benefits, with a free pharmacy. Even part-time workers are covered.
• GUARANTEED PENSION. No paycheck deductions. You’re paid a pension no matter how long you live. Benefits are paid for entirely by your employer and are guaranteed by the government. In addition, you can add to your retirement income by investing in your own 401(k).
• JOB SECURITY. The company cannot get rid of your job by replacing it with an outside company like Station did with its coffee shops and uniform rooms.

What Is Station Casinos Waiting For?

Why has Station Casinos not treated employees like you as well as it has treated its top executives and Wall Street banks? What are they waiting for?

STATION CASINOS HAS PAID THE FERTITTAS AND OTHER EXECUTIVES WELL.

In 2007, Station Casinos paid the Fertitta family and other top executives $660 million in a Wall Street-funded “buyout.” Top executives continue to be paid millions of dollars a year while the company has suffered billions in losses since 2007.

STATION CASINOS HAS PAID ITS WALL STREET BANKERS WELL.

The company borrowed from Wall Street to fund its 2007 buyout, paying millions in fees to its bankers and lawyers. And since 2007, it has paid its Wall Street creditors — primarily Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase — nearly $900 million in interest. The company has said that it will pay Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase at least another half a billion dollars over the next four years.

HERE’S WHAT STATION CASINOS HAS DONE FOR YOU:

Station Casinos has not given you a raise in three years. Union workers on the Strip have got big raises over the same period. Union housekeepers got a total raise of over $1.20 per hour and Union food servers got more than $0.60 an hour since you got your last raise.

Station Casinos stopped paying for your 401(k) match. Union workers on the Strip continue to enjoy a pension that is fully paid for by their employers.

Station Casinos raised your cost of healthcare. Union workers on the Strip still do not have to take anything out of their paychecks to pay for PPO health coverage for their families because the employers pay for it.

Station Casinos has subcontracted out hundreds of jobs to low-pay outside restaurant companies. Union workers on the Strip are protected by their contract against losing their jobs to subcontracting.

IT’S ABOUT TIME STATION CASINOS GAVE YOU A RAISE AND STARTED TREATING YOU WITH RESPECT!

Extra medical benefits, fitness training and club memberships for Station executives in 2009

Station Casino workers were notified last June that their monthly benefit premiums for PPO insurance would increase to $75 for individuals and $175 dollars for families and that even the HMO would not be free anymore. Vice President of Human Resources Valerie Murzl, wrote to Station workers: “Due to the continuing difficult economic climate, it is necessary to adjust the benefit premium structure.”

Of course, management forgot to inform the workers that executives would continue to receive extra medical benefits, fitness training and club memberships. According to a recent SEC filing, in 2009, top executives received the following benefits and perks:

• In total, Station Casinos’ top five executives received $99,923 in “executive medical” benefits and $236,505 in life insurance.

• CEO Frank Fertitta III alone received $60,807 in “executive medical” benefits and $34,155 in personal security services.

• Chief Operating Officer Kevin Kelley and Chief Development Officer Scott Nielson received $16,000 and $10,000, respectively, for “fitness training.”

• Chief Accounting Officer Thomas Friel, General Counsel Richard Haskins, and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Kelley received $8,997, $9,793 and $4,620 respectively for “club membership and dues.”

In 2009, Station was under financial distress and eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 28. Do you think the company should have spent its money on these kinds of executive benefits and perks?