Station Casinos’ hiring policies rapped

David Strow

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2000 | 10:45 a.m.

In keeping the 925 employees of the Reserve hotel-casino, Station Casinos Inc. will be breaking with a trend it started at the Santa Fe and continued at the Fiesta -- the policy of making all employees at a newly acquired property re-apply for their jobs, and considering those that remain as brand new employees.

Station will do so because of its contract with Reserve owner Ameristar Casinos Inc. -- a contract that specifies that all Reserve employees must be allowed to keep their jobs at the property, with no loss of seniority or benefits.

But Station received a key concession of its own -- a contractual obligation from Ameristar to keep the more than 3,000 employees now working at the Station-owned casinos in Kansas City and St. Charles, Mo. Ameristar is buying the two properties from Station for $475 million.

It's an exception that is drawing fire from the Culinary Union, which was not successful in its attempts to convince the Nevada Gaming Commission to compel Station to retain employees at the Fiesta and Santa Fe. D. Taylor, Culinary staff director, branded the Reserve decision as "hypocritical."

"Those 3,500 people are going to keep their jobs in Missouri," Taylor said on Las Vegas One's "POV Vegas" television news discussion program Monday.

"Knowing that Station has proclaimed that Las Vegas is their home, their market, the workers that live here, who have made Las Vegas successful, should have the same kind of consideration those workers in Missouri had, that the workers at the Reserve had," he said.

Valerie Murzl, Station vice president of human resources, responded that the provision was specifically negotiated at Ameristar's request.

"The Reserve is different because during negotiations the owners of the Reserve negotiated into the contract that we take their employees," Murzl said. "They insisted on that as part of the deal. The Maloofs (owners of the Fiesta) and the Lowdens (owners of the Santa Fe) never negotiated that for their employees."

About 200 of the 900 employees who worked at the Santa Fe before Station took over were rehired by Station. Roughly 400 have been rehired at the Fiesta, though the ultimate number that will retain their jobs there isn't known yet. Station officials argue they need the ability to transfer Station employees to the new properties to reward long-time employees with better shifts, more convenient locations and promotion opportunities.

"We believe in America all people have choices," Murzl said. "We believe if you invest $185 million in an asset, you have the right to choose those people you want to have in those properties."

"If all that is true, they would have insisted that those same sort of conditions applied for employees at the Reserve," Taylor retorted.

In this deal, however, keeping Missouri employees will be critical as the Missouri Gaming Commission considers a deal that will allow Station to leave that market. Prior to the sale to Ameristar, the commission moved to revoke Station's licenses after company officials refused a commission subpoena to testify at a hearing regarding the activities of Michael Lazaroff, Station's former outside attorney in Missouri.

A big concern during those proceedings was the spectre of putting thousands of Missourians out of work if the casinos were forced to close. L.G. Ullery, chairman of the commission, said job retention remains a key concern for commissioners -- though he emphasized that details of Station's agreement with Ameristar weren't a factor in the decision to settle the Lazaroff case.

"(Job retention) is something we dwell on a lot when we talk about buying someone else out," said Ullery. "We don't want the wholesale firing of people and rehiring. We want to keep the people where they are. I know my staff would have been fairly adamant about keeping jobs in Missouri."

"I'd have heartburn," Ullery said, if Ameristar made Missouri employees re-apply for their jobs. But ultimately, Ullery acknowledged the Missouri commission wouldn't have had the enforcement power to stop layoffs, a power the Nevada commission argued it did not have.

"I think there would be a problem, but I don't know if there's a whole lot we could do about it," Ullery said. "We certainly like to see a large percentage of the people stay there. They must be all right, or the previous owners wouldn't have kept them."