Red Rock Casino Employees against Forceful Union by NRLB

Las Vegas Red Rock Casino employees strike against the NRLB for trying to force them to join a union after a judge ordered the casino to concede defeat.

Red Rock Casino Employees Sue NRLB

Red Rock Casino employees are challenging a federal district court order requiring them to bargain with a union that they voted against forming. On Tuesday, Red Rock employees filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asserting that District Court Judge Gloria Navarro wrongfully went against their will, since they had previously voted against joining the Culinary Union and its affiliated Bartenders Union in Las Vegas.

According to the lawsuit, members of the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) held a secret ballot vote in 2019 to create the union of Red Rock Casino employees. The workers formally rejected the union, but an NRLB representative filed an injunction and the court listened. In July, the judge ruled in favor of the injunction and cited evidence from union officials that employees have agreed to it by signing union authorization cards before the vote.

In their brief, the employees state that these card checks are not reliable and shouldn’t be used as evidence supporting the union. They also stated that the workers voted against unionization by a vote of 627 to 534.

National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRWLDF), a nonprofit legal aid organization, now represents the workers.

In a statement, NRWLDF president Mark Mix said that the judge’s unwanted authorization and inattention to the workers’ wishes are outrageous. Mix also said that there are many examples of employees being pressured, bribed and misled to sign union cards. He stated that card checks are unreliable, especially when there is an NLRB-supervised secret ballot election.

NLRB Played the “Gissel Order” Card

The “Gissel order,” named after the precedent set by the Supreme Court in the case NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co. in 1969, says that when NLRB believes that there can’t be a free and fair election, it can request the court to impose a union for the best interest of the workers. But the court admitted that authorization cards are not sufficient enough to base a claim for unionization.

Mix stated that if federal labor law can defend the rights and freedoms of employees, the Court of Appeals should overturn Judge Navarro’s order, which bypasses the employees’ vote.

This is one of the two cases against the union bosses in Nevada. Employees from the Palms Casino also filed a petition recently, wanting the desertification of their entrance into the union in March. However, the petition is still in the court system.