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Thursday, May 27, 2010 | 1:49 p.m.
Sun Archives
- New objections filed to Station Casinos bankruptcy plan (5-25-2010)
- Station Casinos loses $53.5 million in first quarter (5-17-2010)
- Station Casinos: No competitive advantage under bankruptcy plan (4-29-2010)
- Station Casinos: Boyd Gaming meddling in bankruptcy case (4-28-2010)
- Boyd Gaming objects to Station Casinos reorganization plan (4-22-2010)
- Union-backed group critical of Station reorganization plan (4-21-2010)
- Creditors attack Station Casinos bankruptcy plan (4-21-2010)
- Key lenders agree to Station Casinos reorganization plan (4-19-2010)
- Station Casinos asks judge for extension in bankruptcy case (4-8-2010)
RENO - Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive ruled today that an informal committee of employees of Station Casinos Inc. has no standing to participate in Station’s bankruptcy proceedings.
The Culinary Union has been trying to organize casino workers at a host of Station-owned casinos in the Las Vegas area.
Zive said the 10 workers in the informal committee are not creditors or interest holders. There is no collective bargaining agreement, he said.
The informal committee includes cooks, servers, housekeepers and porters.
Kristin Martin, attorney for the 10 workers, said she would re-file a motion to gain status in the case. She said the group wants to see workers at the casinos retain their jobs.
Martin said she also wants Station to stop its "anti-union campaign."
A spokeswoman for Station said there has been an attempt for 10 years to organize the workers. It has always come up short, she said.
The union, she said, wants to insert itself into the court process.
Zive, in rejecting the motion by the workers, said "There is not a single party in the case that has indicated they would interfere with the retention of any employees (after the bankruptcy is resolved)."
Ken Liu, research director for the Culinary Union, said company records show 1,485 workers have lost their jobs since the company filed its petition for bankruptcy in July 2009.
A Station spokeswoman said other casinos in Las Vegas have also laid off workers during the down economy.
Zive opened the two-day hearing by saying an auction for 11 of the Station casinos would be held Aug. 9.
The judge said he would rule Friday on the plan for reorganization submitted by Station.
Independent vendors and bondholders have criticized the plan, which calls for secured lenders Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, the Fertitta family and Colony Capital to end up owning five casinos. Those casinos are Red Rock Resort in Summerlin, Sunset Station in Henderson, Boulder Station, Palace Station and Wild Wild West in Las Vegas.
Eleven other casinos would be put up for auction with the proceeds going to pay creditors. The Fertittas, Colony Capital and the two financial companies would submit a "stalking horse bid" of $772 million for the 11 properties.
It (the SEIU) seems to have endless dollars to promote Dina Titus and Harry Reid's campaigns but now we find out that the taxpayers are going to foot the bill for a $165 billion (yes, billion) bailout of their failing pension funds.
Wake up people, the unions are screwing us into the ground.
Why not liquidate it all to pay creditors?
Can we tax union dues??? How about a 50% tax on union dues to support education. That should be a revenue source we can all get behind.
@bbtbrain I say BS prove it.
@neiman If you pull your head out of your butt you would know that dues are a self imposed tax to pay for the union. Remember, Unions built Vegas. We did what no where else could do in the time we did it "City Center" all Union buddy. You have a problem post your name and address and Ill send you some information that will open your eyes.
Neiman and bbtbrain,
This information is for you.
Source: http://www.helium.com/items/573736-histo...
History of labor unions in the United States
In order to fully understand the history of labor unions, you must first understand why those labor unions were created. The greed of the owners and/or employers, together with market competition, caused such people to hire those people who are willing to work for the least amount of money. That, coming at a time when most employees worked as long as 80 hours per week within what was usually a filthy and an unsafe environment. Children, no matter how old they were, and women also labored in such conditions.
Knowledge is Power (Victor Hugo and others)
neutral, aren't there laws in place to prevent many of those terrible practices? I'm wondering if unions are actually necessary in this day and age, or if they're just holding back the ambitious workers and rewarding the lazy, and lining the pockets of union leaders who negotiate side deals with politicians.
Culinary Creeps Attorney Kristen Martin is going to attempt to RE-INFLICT this group of sell-outs back in to the bankruptcy process?! What the hell is wrong with this clown?!
Duh, Kristen, did you not listen to a word Judge Zive said about your make-shift "committee"?! Perhaps I should paraphrase:
Ten (10!) people out of TWELVE THOUSAND PLUS (12,000+) WORKERS are "organizing" and pretending in their little delusional, make-believe world that they have ANYTHING whatsoever to do with the Stations bankruptcy process. In doing so, they have been shot down repeatedly by their co-workers (who truly have NO INTEREST in being represented by Culinary Clowns and Creeps), and now by the courts.
When will they realize that NOBODY AT THIS COMPANY WANTS THEM AROUND?! We, the workers, have been telling Culinary to POUND SAND for years! Stop with the stalking/harassing/threatening/inflicting-your-perceived-entitlements on us. Now that Judge Zive has apparently told them the same thing, they continue to insist on blindly bullying their way into our jobs.
It is true that unions were once necessary in the history of America but now civil law fully protects the integrity of the worker and unions are now a drain on productivity. Unions have a bureaucracy all their own and an agenda entirely different than that of the company that is FORCED to employ its members. Not everyone knows that unions are required to fight for their members right or wrong (particularly when they are wrong) and union revenues grow with more membership. The less productivity per employee the more employees you need and the more profit for the union.
There is not a single business owner or investor, including prior union members, who would prefer their employees to be unionized versus non-unionized. Why? Because everyone knows that so long as civil laws exist (and we are a land of law) that it is a contrived system to have anyone between those who pay and those who earn the wage.
Unions paint an evil picture of "management" but managers are simply people too. There are good managers and poor managers just like poor workers and good workers. Allow companies to shred their poor performers and retain their good performers.
lectrocuda, I thought what neiman1 said was pretty brilliant. And for you to boast about putting up City Center, that's a joke, and one you shouldn't be proud of. If MGM goes bankrupt, your union's will be out, and guess what, Las Vegas will become competitive again. Go ask a General Motor's Union employee how things are going...oh wait, you can't, they don't work there anymore.
On that note though, I feel no sympathy for these companies that continue to sign these contracts with Union's, has anyone ever even read these things? Ridiculous.
Comment removed by moderator. Post in all caps.
"By lectrocuda
May 27, 2010
4:07 p.m" Quote"Unions built Vegas"
Organized crime built Las Vegas .With the help of help of the same corrupt union as we have today! So please leave this State and go back to Washington and your buddy king Obama and see what else you can screw up..... Thank you,lectrocuda
Why the hell should a union have standing if Stations doesn't have union staff?!?
The only card-check Culinary should have is a sweep by ICE to check for green cards.
oh yeah, lets get rid of more middle class folks. union haters just can't relize the greed at the top is sucking us all dry. same people who hate unions will be ones celebrating memorial day without paying homage to people who fought for what we have. same little guys who would flee to mexico if draft was put back in. good grief, we don't care about our neighbors anymore, disgusting
Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive is in the pocket of the Fertittas.
Unions suck us dry, look at any industry right now in trouble and you will find a union based problem. kick the unions to the curb, they are useless. Have you even notice the ignorance,along with the blank looks they have when trying to present to the public a baseless reason why they should get their way? They are the problem, good to see the judge not give them a say.You are going to see a big backlash against unions over the nest several years, justly deserved.
to wdm. how does the union personally suck you dry? btw unions did build the city, the mob sent all the money back to st louis, chicago and milwaukee. The workers here in Vegas built the homes, the neighborhoods, the churches, the COMMUNITY. All of you union haters should go back and study your history. The birth of organized labor go hand in hand with the birth of suburbs and the birth of the middle class. Until then, there were 2 classes, rich and poor. After organized labor started protecting workers rights, these employees could buy homes and not live in slumlord dwellings. So i know its easy to bash unions and Obama. because hes obviously to blame for the market collapse we are currently experiencing. And im sure the unions were in charge of giving out all the sub prime loans, that crushed the real estate in this country.
cvaughn, do you really think those neighborhoods in Las Vegas wouldn't have been built if those workers weren't members of a union? There was demand for a product, not having unions wouldn't have prevented the supply from being created. I would argue that it could have been done more efficiently.
Again, there clearly was a time and a place for unions to exist, but with the existing laws that we have in place, I think they don't offer anything positive to anyone, other than workers with no ambition that want to do just enough to get by, but nothing more. I do speak from experience, unfortunately.
I'd like to hear a few examples of how unions alone improve the lives of their customers (not members). Quality, efficiency, anything. Based on what I see, they exist to improve the lives of their members, and their definition of "improve" is doing less and getting more. In my opinion, this is why we're losing so many jobs overseas.
Like ImproveLV said...The unions had their place in history and most certainly protected workers back in the day.
That was then, this is now. One of the many reasons America has lost it's competitive edge and we have the economic problems in this country today are the result of labor unions pricing the costs of goods and services once made in America unaffordable. They have priced us out of the free world market causing jobs to be sent off shore. So why are they relevant in today's America?