Culinary Union calls out Station Casinos as trial over ‘anti-worker’ actions begins

Station Casinos is accused of using pandemic layoffs as a way to weaken union support among their workers, for years the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has called out Station Casinos for its anti-union actions.

This week marked the start of a trial against Station Casinos in which the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleges that the company used COVID-19 layoffs as a way to undermine union efforts in its Las Vegas properties. 

The complaint, filed in 2021 by the NLRB, alleges that the company “engaged in a scheme” during pandemic shutdowns to lay off and recall employees “in a selective and discriminatory manner” to weaken union support among their workers. The NLRB also alleges that the company unlawfully withdrew recognition from the union as bargaining representative for employees at Boulder Station and Palace Station in August and September 2020. 

Unlike Strip properties, Station Casinos — which owns several properties including Green Valley Ranch Resort Spa and Casino, Red Rock Casino Hotel and Spa, and the Durango Casino and Resort — have historically refused to recognize and bargain with the union until last month, when the NLRB ordered Station Casinos to do so.

For years the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has called out Station Casinos for its anti-union actions. Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer, Ted Pappageorge, said this week that the NLRB hearing shows the union’s efforts against the company are valid. 

“It’s not just us, it’s the federal government saying that this company has concocted and conducted a massive scheme to deny workers their right to have their jobs back after the pandemic. And there’s a huge amount of liability out there for those actions,” Pappageorge said at a press conference Tuesday. 

Throughout the 39 scheduled hearing days from now until the end of the year, an administrative law judge and the NLRB will hear from witnesses, workers, and Station Casinos executives, including CEO Frank Fertitta III, to decide on the case. 

Fertitta and his brother Lorenzo Fertitta are sons of the Las Vegas casino mogul Frank Fertitta Jr. The Fertittas have donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates, including Donald Trump. 

At the press conference, Culinary Union members shared their experiences working at Station Casinos properties, including instances of being discriminated against for being pro-union. 

Alba Acosta, a banquet server at Red Rock Casino, said that she worked her way up over 17 years to get scheduled to work 30 hours a week, but after being rehired as an on-call worker when the hotel reopened, she is “lucky” to get one shift a week — still four years later. 

“They promised to give so much — such as free health care — but now with my limited hours, I am not qualified to receive it,” Acosta said. “Benefits are only for full-time employees, which pre-pandemic I was. One of [Station Casinos’] most famous quotes is, ‘We love locals,’ but it’s refusing to give back what really matters: our jobs.”