Worker Station

Religious Leaders Call on Station Casinos to Ensure Just Treatment of Workers!

On November 15, 2011, clergy and lay leaders from across the Las Vegas Valley, community allies, and members of the Culinary and Bartenders unions joined Station Casinos workers as the faith leaders made their first public statement calling on Station Casinos to ensure the just treatment of workers.  The event in front of the company’s headquarters at Red Rock Casino Resort included public prayer and blessings as the group shed light on the moral issues at stake in Las Vegas. Clergy drew attention to the company’s mistreatment of workers including its failure to respect federal labor laws.

“From the Scriptures, there is no question that God is just,” said Rev. Leonard B. Jackson, one of the clergy who spoke out against the company’s treatment of workers.  “As his servants, it is our moral responsibility to advocate for the just treatment of all of God’s children, including Station workers.”

Members of the faith community have met with workers from Station Casinos and have been moved to action after learning about the company’s treatment of workers.  Faith leaders are concerned about the recent recommended decision issued by the National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge in which he found the company guilty of violating workers’ lawful rights. (Update: the company has appealed the decision.) They are also alarmed that workers have not had a wage increase or contributions made to their retirement in almost five years since a management-led buyout allowed a small group of insiders to take $660 million out of the company.

“The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah caution God’s people against the accumulation of wealth at the expense of the average person,” said Rabbi Mel Hecht, who also called on the company to improve its treatment of workers.  “We call upon Station Casino to share the wealth that workers have played a fundamental and critical role in helping them make.”

 

Station Casinos Found to Be Largest Violator of Labor Law in the History of Nevada Gaming

On September 22, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Geoffrey Carter found more violations of federal law by Station Casinos than in any previous case against a Nevada gaming company. (Update: the company has appealed the decision.)

The judge has recommended that Station be ordered to cease and desist from its wide-ranging violations of federal law. His decision gives the lie to Station’s propaganda about this case. It has told employees and the press that it has “at all times complied with the law.”  Now the truth is out. 

Judge Carter found that Station committed 87 separate unfair labor practices in its war against its employees’ organizing campaign with Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165. The unfair labor practices run the whole gamut of illegal conduct by employers to prevent organizing. It fired, disciplined, threatened, interrogated, offered bribes (promising benefits), and spied on its employees who were organizing for the union. It adopted rules designed to prevent employees from communicating with one another about the union. It told them that it would be futile for them to select the union to represent them.

This decision followed weeks of trial from October 2010 to May 2011. Station failed to call a single witness in its defense.  Instead, it tried to get the judge to dismiss the complaint on procedural grounds having to do with its claim that the union did not give it all the information it subpoenaed for trial. The judge rejected this request.  He also rejected Station’s request to be paid its litigation costs over the subpoena issues.

Station Casinos’ anti-union campaign has overwhelmingly affected Latino workers. While the company claims 26% of its workforce is Latino or Hispanic, 78% of the 87 labor law violations found by Judge Carter involve Latino workers. Moreover, eight of the ten worker organizers the company has fired so far are Latino. Three have been brought back to work after charges were filed with the NLRB.

See below for the list of federal labor law violations by Station Casinos found by the judge. For the full recommended decision by Judge Carter, go here.

ALJ Recommend Order-Cease and Desist

APALA Passes Resolution to Support Station Casinos Workers!

A RESOLUTION TO SUPPORT WORKERS AT STATION CASINOS

WHEREAS, workers at ten Station Casinos hotel-casinos in Las Vegas are seeking to join a union in order to secure a better future for themselves and their families; and

WHEREAS, on February 19, 2010, the Station Casinos Organizing Committee presented the company with a petition that stated, in part: “We demand that Station Casinos Ownership and Management respect our signatures and agree to a fair process for us to decide whether to have union representation without management interference and intimidation;” and

WHEREAS, Station Casinos has responded with an aggressive and harsh anti-union campaign that has included alleged threats, intimidation, interrogation, surveillance, bribery, discouragement, discrimination, and discipline against workers who were engaged in legally protected union activities; and

WHEREAS, the National Labor Relations Board has issued complaints of 201 Unfair Labor Practice Charges against Station Casinos; and

WHEREAS, over eighty percent (80%) of the NLRB’s charges involved Latino workers and over sixty percent (60%) involved women; and

WHEREAS, after the company’s bankruptcy reorganization, the Ownership of Station Casinos now includes Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase, and the new company has retained the antiunion management team; and

WHEREAS, the Asian-Pacific American Labor Alliance has demonstrated its support for Station Casinos workers at the first-ever Las Vegas Asian-Pacific American Workers’ Rights Hearing on September 25, 2010,

Therefore, be it resolved that the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance hereby:

• Call on Station Casinos to respect the right to organize of all workers – Asian, Latino, men, women
• Demand that Station Casinos stop firing Latino and other worker organizers; and
• Urge Station Casinos’ Owners and Management to immediately provide employees with a fair process to decide whether to have union representation.

Submitted By the APALA Las Vegas Chapter

Adopted at the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO 11th Biennial Convention on Sunday, July 23, 2011.

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Thank you, APALA!

“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.