Region 28-Phoenix Wins Cemex Board Order Requiring Las Vegas Casino Bargain with Union

Las Vegas, Nevada — On June 17, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board issued a Decision and Order requiring the Las Vegas casino Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa to bargain with Local Joint Executive Board of Las Vegas, affiliated with UNITE HERE International Union.

The NLRB found that, during a campaign by the union to organize Red Rock’s food and beverage and hotel operations employees, Red Rock violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by: announcing and implementing an unprecedented set of new benefits to dissuade employees from supporting the union; threatening to withhold or withdraw benefits from employees if they selected union representation; implicitly threatening that employees’ selection of the union would be futile; implicitly threatening that employees’ selection of the union would result in an increased chance of job loss as a result of a strike; and discriminating against employees because of their union support.

The NLRB found that Red Rock’s conduct warranted a bargaining order under the Supreme Court’s long-standing decision in NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575 (1969), because “the possibility of erasing the effects of [Red Rock’s] highly coercive misconduct and ensuring a fair rerun election by the use of the [NLRB’s] traditional remedies is slight,” so that “the majority of employees’ prior free choice of the Union as their representative, as designated by authorization cards, would be better protected by the issuance of a bargaining order.”

The NLRB also found that a bargaining order was appropriate under the NLRB’s recent decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, 372 NLRB No. 130 (2023), because Red Rock refused a request to bargain with the union at a time when the union had been designated by a majority of employees in an appropriate bargaining unit and then committed unfair labor practices requiring an NLRB election to be set aside. This is the first such order in a Board decision since it issued its Cemex decision.

The NLRB also ordered enhanced remedies, including entry of a broad cease-and-desist order prohibiting Red Rock from interfering with its rights under the NLRA in any manner and a requirement that Red Rock post and mail a notice to employees and explanation of rights and hold meetings at which those documents will been read and distributed to employees in the presence of high-level management officials.

“Employees have the right to make their choice about union representation without facing coercion,” said Region 28 Regional Director Cornele A. Overstreet. “Region 28’s work to secure the NLRB’s Order against Red Rock demonstrates our steadfast commitment to protecting that right."

Established in 1935, the National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employees, employers, and unions from unfair labor practices and protects the right of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve wages, benefits and working conditions. The NLRB conducts hundreds of workplace elections and investigates thousands of unfair labor practice charges each year. Region 28 serves areas in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas from its Regional Office in Phoenix and its Resident Offices in Albuquerque and Las Vegas.