FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2014
Media contact:
bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ @BethanyKhan ▪ (702) 387-7088
Community to Rally for Good Jobs in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS, NV- On Friday, August 29, clergy leaders and union casino workers from the Strip and Downtown will join Station Casinos workers in a march to Boulder Station to demand good jobs for locals. The event will start at 5pm at the George E. Harris Elementary School and will include live performances along the march route and at the rally on Boulder Highway.
“I want the same opportunity to provide for my family that tens of thousands of other casino workers have,” said Rodrigo Solano, a cook at Boulder Station, a Station Casinos property. “My co-workers and I want to have good jobs where we can exercise our right to choose whether to unionize without management interference or long, drawn-out litigation at the National Labor Relations Board.”
Station Casinos is the worst labor law violator in the history of the Las Vegas gaming industry. A majority of Station workers have signed a public petition for a fair process to decide whether to unionize since March 2012. Station Casinos was found to have broken labor law and violated its employees’ rights eighty-eight (88) times by two administrative law judges of the National Labor Relations Board. In September 2012, the NLRB denied the company’s appeal of these rulings.
“Biblical faith demands fair treatment for workers,” said Bishop Dan Edwards, Episcopal Diocese of Nevada and member of the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice of Las Vegas. “We stand with the workers of Station Casinos in their just claims and pray that a fair agreement may be reached for the good of the workers and the whole community of Las Vegas.”
“I know what it’s like to work at a non-union hotel,” said Monie Cariaga-Stewart, a cocktail server at the Paris Hotel and Casino. “I have friends who work at Station Casinos and I want them to have the same respect and dignity that I have.”
Station Casinos is the fourth largest private-sector employer in Las Vegas. It has nine large hotel-casinos: Red Rock Resort, Green Valley Ranch, Boulder Station, Santa Fe Station, Sunset Station, Palace Station, Texas Station, Fiesta Rancho, and Fiesta Henderson.
The Culinary Union has created an online resource about the on-going labor dispute at these Station properties: www.VegasTravelAlert.org/Stations. The public and event and conference planners are urged to contact the union to discuss alternatives to utilizing these properties.
Culinary Workers Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent over 55,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. UNITE HERE represents 270,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
www.CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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