Red Rock Casino Resort request for stay over bargaining order denied
The Las Vegas casino must comply with an NLRB recognition and bargaining order while it prepares a Supreme Court petition.
US.- Chief Justice John Roberts has denied Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa’s emergency application to stay a federal order requiring the Summerlin property to recognise and bargain with the Culinary Union. Roberts, who handles emergency applications arising from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, rejected the request on September 4 without explanation.
The denial does not bar Red Rock from asking the Supreme Court to hear its appeal, but it leaves the National Labour Relations Board order enforceable while the casino pursues that challenge. A Station Casinos spokesperson said the company will comply with the court order but continues to object to the NLRB decision.
A spokesperson said: “The NLRB decision overturned the clear vote of Red Rock team members rejecting the Culinary Union. The decision prevents any company from granting benefits to its employees if it is aware of union interest in unionising the company’s employees and nullifies the Red Rock team members’ vote to be union-free, all because Station Casinos treated its team members too well.”
In June, the D.C. Circuit upheld the NLRB’s 2024 decision ordering Red Rock to recognise and bargain with the Local Joint Executive Board of Las Vegas, affiliated with Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165. The appeals court denied Red Rock’s request for rehearing in August.
Red Rock filed the emergency application with Roberts on August 29, arguing it would suffer irreparable harm if required to comply before the Supreme Court could consider its case. The casino particularly objected to an NLRB requirement that it hold meetings during working hours at which a notice and explanation of employees’ rights must be read in English and Spanish in the presence of senior management.
The order also requires Red Rock to recognise and bargain with the union upon request, post notices for 60 days and mail notices to current and former bargaining-unit employees who have worked at the casino since September 2019. Several compliance deadlines are triggered by service of the order by the NLRB’s Las Vegas-based Region 28 office.
The NLRB found Red Rock committed unfair labour practices surrounding a December 2019 union election, including coercive conduct and discriminatory actions against union supporters. The union lost that election, but the Board concluded the casino’s conduct interfered with employees’ ability to freely choose representation and warranted a bargaining order.
Red Rock argues that companywide employee benefit enhancements cited by the NLRB had been approved before the union filed its petition. In its emergency application, the casino said its Supreme Court petition will challenge when benefit increases can justify a bargaining order and whether the NLRB adequately considered circumstances that changed during the years since the 2019 election.
