[[link removed]]
NLRB IS TESTING OUT A NEW TOOL TO STOP UNION BUSTING
[[link removed]]
Alex N. Press
June 22, 2024
Jacobin
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
_ This week, the NLRB handed down its first Cemex order against
Station Casinos in Las Vegas, which engaged in heavy-handed union
busting before workers lost a vote to unionize. The ruling may force
the casino chain to bargain with the union anyway. _
Supporters of the Culinary Workers Union carry picket signs outside
of the Four Queens Casino in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, on February
2, 2024. , Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
When workers at three Station Casinos properties in Las Vegas, Nevada
— the Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa, the Boulder Station Hotel &
Casino, and the Palace Station Hotel & Casino — started organizing
to join the Culinary Workers Union in 2019, Station Casinos management
kicked off a heavy-handed union-busting campaign. Now, thanks to a
first-of-its-kind National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling, the
casino chain may be forced to recognize a union despite its workers
not having won a union election.
According to the National Labor Relations Board earlier this week,
managers engaged in “serious pervasive unlawful misconduct,”
including, most colorfully, serving hundreds of Station workers free
steaks branded with the words “VOTE NO!” That incident took place
two days before the workers voted in an NLRB
[[link removed]] union election in 2019: the
result was 627 to 534 against joining the Culinary Workers Union.
According to the board, the company did this because the quality of
food served to workers was a major concern among employees. The NLRB
found that the company’s misconduct began well before the NLRB vote
and continued for months following it.
“The whole record reflects that [Station Casinos’] extensive
coercive and unlawful misconduct stemmed from a carefully crafted
corporate strategy intentionally designed at every step to interfere
with employees’ free choice whether or not to select the Union as
their collective-bargaining representative,” the board members wrote
this week in their decision on the case, which involves sixteen unfair
labor practice (ULP) charges filed by the union. “The centerpiece of
[Station Casinos’] unlawful campaign was its tripart message
promising and granting employees tremendous new benefits without the
Union, threatening to withhold or withdraw these benefits if employees
selected the Union, and implicitly threatening that selecting the
Union could only lead to years of fruitless bargaining without any
improvement to working conditions.”
In its decision, the board issued Station Casinos its first-ever
_Cemex_
[[link removed]]
bargaining order, making the Las Vegas dispute the test case for a
tool the board hopes will discourage employers from breaking the law;
currently, there are few deterrents to such criminality on the
boss’s part. The _Cemex_ order’s name comes from a 2023 case
against a building materials company, and it applies in cases where an
employer’s lawbreaking during a union organizing campaign is severe
enough to necessitate rerunning an NLRB election.
The process is as follows: if workers request their employer
voluntarily recognize their union and the boss instead petitions the
board for an election, only to then violate labor laws during the
campaign, rather than rerunning the election — a protracted process
that can stall a union’s momentum — a _Cemex_ order requires the
employer to recognize the union regardless of the election outcome,
compelling them to begin contract negotiations.
In addition to the _Cemex_ order, the NLRB ordered Station Casinos to
remove workers’ photos from an anti-union website created by the
company, as well as to reinstate with back pay a pro-union worker who
had been fired, finding that the reasons given for her termination
“were a pretext devised or directed by senior executives to ensure
that there would be fewer union leaders in the voting unit in the
event that a new election was ordered.”
Station Casinos can appeal the decision to federal court and challenge
the order to bargain with the union. In a statement to the _Huffington
Post_
[[link removed]],
the company said it was reviewing the decision.
There are a number of other candidates for _Cemex_ orders in the
works: workers at a Trader Joe’s location in Manhattan want
[[link removed]]
one too, for instance. And there are other cases coming down the pike:
the Teamsters have increased the intensity of their efforts to
organize with Amazon workers as well as the armies of subcontracted
drivers who deliver the company’s packages to customers’ doors. In
the case of the latter, workers want Amazon to be classified as a
joint employer and consequently forced to bargain a contract with
them. Should they request voluntary recognition as they unionize,
forcing their employers to petition the board for formal elections
only for Amazon to then retaliate, the board could issue a _Cemex_
order.
None of this has been tested, and Station Casinos’ owners, brothers
Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, have proven willing to resist their
workers’ demands — their properties are among the few holdouts in
Las Vegas’s heavily unionized casino and hotel industry. In other
words, we now have a new test of just how far employers are willing to
go to challenge not only their workers, but the board itself.
Alex N. Press is a staff writer at _Jacobin_ who covers labor
organizing.
Our new print issue, centered on the topic of religion, is out now.
Follow this link to get a discounted yearlong subscription, plus
unlimited web access. [[link removed]]
* union organizing
[[link removed]]
* NLRB
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT
Submit via web
[[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]
Twitter [[link removed]]
Facebook [[link removed]]
[link removed]
To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]
