Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

GAMING:

Culinary sees opportunity after Station makes its move

The wedge that the Culinary Union has been working to drive between Station Casinos management and its employees just got a lot bigger Monday, after the nonunion gaming giant told its workers the company would no longer contribute to its 401(k) plan.

Such corporate contributions to retirement plans are protected in the Culinary’s contracts with Strip operators, and the Culinary will likely be wielding that argument to Station workers as the union continues its quiet campaign to unionize the company. The union is notoriously tight-lipped about its campaign for fear of management reprisal, but labor leaders have made their intentions clear.

After the Culinary’s endorsed candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, lost the popular vote in Nevada’s presidential caucus this year, the union outlined to membership a series of goals, including organizing Station Casinos. Station, it said, “can no longer be outside the union family.”

Station is a major target: It owns and operates 10 major casinos and, at last count, employed 14,000 people, according to its Web site.

On Monday, Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor declined to discuss the union’s organizing efforts, but nevertheless weighed in on Station’s decision to suspend its retirement contributions — and made a pitch for union membership in the process. He called the move the “most draconian” of any gaming operator since the economy turned.

“Station has decided, for whatever reason, that they no longer are going to be in a position of helping people retire in dignity,” Taylor said. “This illustrates that without guarantees in writing, nothing is safe.”

And then: “When you don’t have a voice and it’s done unilaterally, you’re at the mercy of the company alone.”

Culinary contracts mandate employers contribute 59 cents per hour worked to an employee’s pension, Taylor said.

In a letter to employees, Kevin L. Kelley, Station’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said the “extreme economic downturn” forced the company’s hand and that suspending employer contributions effective Jan. 1 was “part of ongoing cost control measures.” Station, he said, would “reevaluate the potential reinstatement” of matching contributions “on a periodic basis.”

The Culinary and Station are bitter rivals.

The feud goes back to 1993, when, believing it had majority support and the cooperation of the owner, the Culinary ran a conventional organizing campaign at the Santa Fe and won an election to represent the resort’s workers. The owners disputed the result and dragged out the appeals and bargaining process until 1999, when the property was sold to Station Casinos. Station then dismissed the workers in a wholesale firing.

The Culinary challenged the move, filing complaints with both the National Labor Relations Board and Nevada gaming regulators. It lost both challenges. The union has also purchased Station stock and protested at shareholder meetings, objecting, for instance, to an executive compensation plan it said would dilute share value.

Taylor, citing reports from workers, said Station has taken a “slash and burn” approach to employees in the economic downturn. The company, he said, has fired cooks in its employee cafeterias and has plans to close coffee shops and restaurants at some properties, fire workers and subcontract operations.

Unlike Culinary members, those workers have no recall rights and lose seniority in the event they’re rehired, Taylor noted. “That’s not a layoff,” he said. “It’s a termination.”

Station spokeswoman Lori Nelson declined to comment on the specific charges.

“Everyone is well aware of the relationship the Culinary Union has had with our company,” she said. “They have tried unsuccessfully for years to organize our team members and continue to use corporate harassment tactics against us. We’re not going to lower ourselves to Mr. Taylor’s level and respond to his accusations.”

The appetite for unionization at Station properties is unclear, but labor experts say moves such as suspending retirement contributions set the stage for organizing drives.

“When employers start to change work rules and working conditions, cut wages and long-standing benefits, change ownership, those are the kinds of things that drive workers to join a union,” said Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor professor at Cornell University who studies union organizing. “The more of those changes that happen at once, the more likely workers are to start an organizing campaign and the more likely the union is to win.”

Still, the Culinary has refused to revisit the secret-ballot election after its Santa Fe experience. The union has organized most of the Strip and downtown Las Vegas by “card check,” a process wherein a majority of workers sign cards signifying their support for the union. Under federal labor law, employers do not have to honor such cards and can demand an election.

That could change though. Big Labor is seeking legislation that would essentially make the Culinary a model. The law, dubbed the Employee Free Choice Act, would allow workers to form a union by card check, stiffen penalties for employers who commit unfair labor practices during organizing drives and impose binding arbitration in bargaining cases in which the sides cannot agree.

President-elect Obama has vowed to sign the bill into law if it comes to his desk.

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