Recently, a judge ruled that, during its anti-union campaign, Station Casinos committed 87 unfair labor practices. Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejected an appeal by Station Casinos, upholding the decision and bringing a big victory to the Culinary Union Local 226. The order was signed by all three NLRB members including Republican Brian Hayes.

In siding with the Culinary Union, the NLRB took on the largest casino operator in Las Vegas. Local 226 praised the decision in their release. Workers are pleased with the prospect of having a fair election:

Dawn Vaseur, a 12 year cocktail server at Santa Fe, reacted to the verdict by saying, “This is a tremendous victory for all workers at Stations. We hope this decision will lead to a fair process to decide whether to have union representation without management interference and intimidation.”

While Station Casinos is likely to beleagure the legal system by asking for a review from the United States Court of Appeals, it is unlikely it will be overturned. According to VegasINC, the activities that led to the violations include:

Examples of the conduct documented in the ruling included Station managers adopting a “discriminatory” rule barring employees from engaging in union activities in the parking garage at Santa Fe Station, directing Red Rock Resort employees not to wear union buttons and ordering Palace Station workers not to discuss “issues of common concern” at preshift meetings.

In another incident, Station threatened employees with “Sound Byte Alerts” involving anti-union information that urged them not to sign cards supportive of the union and that lacked context, resulting in employees feeling threatened by the company.