Latino Workers are Overwhelmingly the Subjects of Company

Las Vegas—The U.S. government’s National Labor Relations Board has issued a massive complaint against Station Casinos charging the Las Vegas gaming company with allegedly violating federal labor law at all ten of its large local resort casinos. Not only is the 127-count federal indictment the largest single complaint ever issued against a Nevada gaming company by the federal labor board, the complaint shows Latinos are overwhelmingly the subjects of the company’s alleged illegal activities. Roughly 86 percent of the charges involve Latino workers.

“Workers at Station Casinos are standing up to join the Culinary and Bartenders unions because they want a better life for themselves and their families,” said Culinary Union President Geoconda Arguello-Kline. “The company has responded not only with an aggressive anti-union campaign resulting in the government issuing a massive labor law complaint, but with an attack that is falling overwhelmingly on Latino workers.”

The federal government’s complaint alleges that, from February 19 through April 7, Station managers broke federal labor laws 127 times. The complaint charges Station Casinos with engaging in a host of illegal activities against workers seeking to exercise their right to form a union, including the use of threats, intimidation, interrogation, surveillance, bribery, discouragement, discrimination, discipline and physical assault. No other Las Vegas gaming company has racked up so many federal government charges in such a short amount of time.

“The company has said over and over again that it will respect our right if we decide we want a union,” said Delmi Aldana, a Cook at Fiesta Rancho. “Actions speak a lot louder than words. We work hard. We take care of the customers and we are just trying to take care of ourselves and our families. We should not have to face threats, intimidation, harassment and retaliation at work for exercising our rights and we should not be targeted.”

The federal complaint stems from unfair labor practice charges filed by the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, and Bartenders Union, Local 165, earlier this year. The National Labor Relations Board investigated those charges and subsequently issued the complaint. The unions opted to withdraw seven of its charges to gather additional evidence before likely refilling them with the Board later this summer.

The unions have informed the company’s lenders of the complaint and Station Casinos’ ill-advised decision to launch a vicious anti-union campaign given the company’s own admission that a key facet of its operations is the goodwill of highly-unionized hospitality workers. Two of the company’s key lenders, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase, have opted for current Station Casinos management to run five of the company’s key properties following the company’s reorganization despite that management’s decision to engage in activities prompting the federal government’s complaint.

The government issued the complaint on May 28, 2010. The NLRB hearing before an administrative law judge on the complaint is scheduled for August 16, 2010.

The Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, and Bartenders Union, Local 165, are both affiliates of UNITE HERE. The Culinary is the largest local labor union in the U.S. gaming industry. The Culinary represents approximately 55,000 casino and resort workers primarily on the Las Vegas Strip and in downtown Las Vegas.