FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Media Contact:
Bethany Khan ▪ BKhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
Trump Hotel Las Vegas agrees to $11,200 settlement after treating employees unfairly
Culinary & Bartenders Union calls for contract negotiations to begin
LAS VEGAS, NV – Trump International Hotel Las Vegas has agreed to settle a case and pay two workers $11,200 in lost wages to avoid going to trial after the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) general counsel issued a complaint on March 2, 2016. The complaint alleged the company fired a union supporter and denied a transfer to a full-time job to another, while promising more job opportunities to workers if they abandoned their support for the Union. The trial was set to start on June 14 before an Administrative Law Judge of the NLRB.
“Within 14 days from approval of this agreement, the Charged Party will make whole the employee(s) named below by payment to each of them of the amount opposite each name,” according to the terms of the settlement agreement negotiated by NLRB Field Attorney Judith E. Dávila on behalf of the government.
From the settlement agreement:
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Full settlement agremeent online here:
“After three years of unfair treatment because I support unionizing Trump Las Vegas, I finally have justice,” said Alma Zamarin, a food server at the property. “I’m not done fighting to make my workplace better – I will keep going until Donald Trump and his son, Eric Trump, sits down and negotiates a good contract with their employees.”
“Donald Trump says he wants to make ‘Make America Great Again,’ but at his hotel, employees are treated unfairly and they are paid $3.00 less per hour than union workers across the street at Wynn or Treasure Island,” said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union. “While we were eager to go to trial to prove that Donald Trump’s hotel broke the law, this settlement is a great victory for his employees whom we contend suffered discrimination because of their union activity and support.”
The Culinary and Bartenders Union were certified on March 21, 2016 by the director of the NLRB’s regional office as the legal collective bargaining representative of more than 500 workers at the hotel after a government run election. This certification means that workers at the Trump are officially unionized, so the Culinary and Bartenders Union called for contract negotiations begin immediately. But Trump Las Vegas has refused to recognize the workers’ democratic vote, and is seeking to have the election results overturned.
Trump Las Vegas workers voted in an NLRB election on December 4 and 5, 2015 at their hotel. Over 500 employees of the hotel are in the union’s bargaining unit and were eligible to vote. This victory for workers at the luxury non-gaming hotel co-owned by Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump and casino owner Phillip Ruffin, came nine months after workers at the Trump International Hotel Toronto voted to join UNITE HERE, and one week after the Trump Toronto workers ratified their first contract.
Donald Trump’s company has driven an aggressive anti-union campaign since workers began organizing at his property in 2014. The NLRB has issued three separate unfair labor practice complaints against Trump Las Vegas since then, alleging conduct ranging from firing and threatening to fire union supporters, suspending employees, interrogating and intimidating employees, including by a manager pushing a union activist, and maintaining illegal rules that prohibited employees from communicating with each other and the public. Trump Las Vegas has settled many of the allegations and others remain pending before the NLRB. Meanwhile, the union has filed new charges since the election victory which are under investigation by the NLRB’s general counsel’s office.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent over 57,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 270,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest immigrant organization with over 57,000 members - a diverse membership that is approximately 55% women and 56% Latino. Members -who work as guest room attendants, bartenders, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, and kitchen workers- come from 167 countries and speak over 40 different languages. The Culinary Union has been fighting for fair wages, job security, and good health benefits for working men and women in Nevada for over 80 years.
The Culinary Union is encouraging Nevada locals, political candidates, and tourists to avoid staying at/or patronizing hotels under an active labor dispute such as Station Casinos, Palms Casino Resort, and the Trump Hotel Las Vegas. To see the full list properties with an active labor dispute, go to: VegasTravelAlert.org.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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