Culinary Union raises document alleging Station Casinos planned layoffs to suppress union votes

At the start of the Oct. 8 meeting, a Culinary Union speaker told the Nevada Gaming Control Board that government lawyers had entered a Station Casinos corporate human‑resources project list (dated Feb. 25, 2020) in a National Labor Relations Board proceeding and that the file described an "on‑call reduction" project whose comment box stated it would "eliminat[e] approximately 1,700 union votes." The speaker characterized that language as evidence of an unlawful anti‑union strategy during the COVID‑19 period and urged the board to ask whether licensees have a habit of disregarding federal labor law.

The union also referenced a "recognition program rollout" and internal comments characterizing an "aggressive nonunion strategy." Thomas Principe, who identified himself as a Culinary Union member and longtime hotel‑industry worker, later told the board he had lost hours and pay moving between Station‑owned properties and asked Nevada gaming regulators to take younger workers’ concerns seriously, saying the industry risks losing a career pathway if young workers cannot earn living wages.

Chairman Dreiser and board staff accepted the comments for the record; as is standard under Nevada open‑meeting law, public‑comment topics raised by speakers are not acted upon immediately but will be part of the public record. The speakers named specific parties and cited the NLRB proceeding as the source of the document entered into evidence.

What to watch: The board does not itself adjudicate federal labor cases, but public comments of this sort can be forwarded to enforcement agents for consideration if they implicate licensee conduct relevant to Nevada suitability or regulatory compliance.