The National Labor Relations Board has ordered a Las Vegas casino to bargain with the Culinary and Bartenders Unions, marking the first application of the Board’s new Cemex standard for bargaining orders.

A three-member NLRB panel found that Red Rock Casino Resort Spa, owned by Station Casinos, engaged in “extensive coercive and unlawful misconduct” between September 2019 and June 2020 as part of a “carefully crafted corporate strategy” to undermine union organizing efforts. The Board’s 81-page decision affirmed a 2022 administrative law judge ruling and outlined numerous violations of federal labor law.

Key violations

The Board found that “the most important unfair labor practices were planned and executed by Red Rock Casino and Station Casinos’ top management and owners.”

Specific violations included:

Promising significant new benefits, including free family healthcare and an improved 401(k) plan, to discourage union support
Threatening to withhold these benefits if employees voted for the union
Implying that unionization would be futile due to years of unproductive bargaining at other properties
Interrogating employees about union activities
Issuing discriminatory work assignments to union supporters

The NLRB found that these actions constituted unfair labor practices that warranted both a Gissel bargaining order and the first-ever Cemex bargaining order.

Bargaining orders

A Gissel bargaining order is a remedy the NLRB can impose when an employer’s unfair labor practices have made a fair election unlikely or impossible. Under Gissel, if a union had majority support at some point and the employer’s misconduct was severe enough to undermine that support and impede a fair election, the NLRB can order the employer to bargain with the union without an election or despite losing an election.

The Cemex bargaining order, established in a 2023 NLRB decision, created a new standard for when the Board can issue a bargaining order. Under Cemex, if a union claims majority support and requests recognition, the employer must either recognize the union or promptly file a petition (within two weeks) for an election.

Appeal expected

The Culinary Union praised the decision.

“The federal government has ruled that Station Casinos’ Red Rock Casino committed massive labor law violations and that upper executives are implicated in a shameful scheme to defeat the worker’s right to have a union,” said Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union, in a statement. “Station Casinos needs to stop breaking the law and treat its workers with respect.”

Station Casinos has indicated that it plans to appeal the decision. For now, however, the company has been ordered to cease and desist threats to employees, post notices informing employees of their rights, and begin bargaining with the union.

Another NRLB case against Station Casinos is still pending. Hearings will begin in late July over allegations that the company engaged in a scheme to use employee layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine unionizing efforts, and unlawfully withdrew union recognition at two other properties.