While most people are likely familiar with the old adage “if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again,” in the world of labor policy the last part sometimes changes to “get the government to intercede.” Such is the case in a prolonged dispute between the prominent Las Vegas casino company Station Casinos and the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which has been engaged in a scorched-earth effort to organize Station’s employees for years. Cue the activists at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In an 81-page decision issued on June 17, a three-member panel of the NLRB ruled against the company in a string of consolidated cases involving non-gaming employees at Red Rock Resort, Palace Station, and Boulder Station, all of which are Station properties. The ruling orders Station Casinos to recognize the Culinary Unionas the official bargaining representative of the employees in question and to engage in negotiations with the labor union.
The NLRB panel justified a so-called Gissel bargaining order under the premise that “at least 810 of the Respondent’s 1343 unit employees—approximately 60 percent— had signed authorization cards designating the Union as their exclusive representative for the purpose of collective bargaining by October 16, 2019.” The 1969 Supreme Court case NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., Inc. allows the NLRB to issue such an order when an employer rejects a card majority but has committed unfair labor practices that would make the holding of a fair election unlikely or that undermined a union’s majority.
More notably, the panel went on to explain that its bargaining order was justified using the rationale set forth in the NLRB’s controversial 2023 Cemex decision, which requires an employer to recognize a union or seek an election when a union requests recognition based on signature cards. Under Cemex, the NLRB can order the employer to recognize and bargain with the union without an election if the employer engages in unfair labor practices, as is alleged in this case.
In the backdrop of all of this is the fact that Stations’ workers—the ones whose interests are at stake—appear to be ambivalent at best about the Culinary Union, perhaps because of its unsavory tactics. For one thing, workers in 2019 voted 627-534 against joining the union, and more recently Station’s employees at several properties have sought to decertify their union.
One would think that their opinions matter, but for the pro-union activists at the NLRB, that is hardly the case. Now Station’s employees will have union representation—whether they want one or not.
About the authors
Sean P. Redmond
Sean P. Redmond is Vice President, Labor Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
