LAS VEGAS, Nev.—The National Labor Relations Board has ordered Station Casinos’ Palms Casino Resort to recognize and bargain with the Culinary and Bartenders Unions, the two unions announced May 22. The board voted unanimously May 13 to certify the April 2018 election in which the workers voted by a 5–1 margin to join the Culinary Union, UNITE HERE Local 226, and the Bartenders, Local 165. It held that Station Casinos had not shown any evidence that justified its challenge to the election, and was violating federal labor law by refusing to bargain with the two unions. “We demand that Station Casinos recognize their workers’ voices and votes at the Palms and begin contract negotiations in good faith immediately,” Culinary secretary-treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline said in a statement. The union represents about 900 workers at the Palms, which is the fourth Station casino in Las Vegas to unionize in the past three years. “This is everything that we have been fighting for over the last four years,” said Melissa Zamarron, a buffet food server who has worked at the Palms for 18 years. The company says it will appeal the NLRB decision in federal court. Read more
