Red Rock must bargain with Culinary union after Supreme Court justice denies stay

Red Rock hotel-casino must comply with a federal order to recognize and bargain with the Culinary union after the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Summerlin resort’s latest attempt to delay enforcement.

Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday denied Red Rock’s emergency application seeking to stay a federal appeals court mandate pending the casino’s planned petition to the Supreme Court. Roberts, who handles emergency applications arising from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, denied the request without explanation.

The denial does not prevent Red Rock from asking the Supreme Court to hear its appeal or indicate whether the justices ultimately will take the case. It does, however, leave the National Labor Relations Board’s order enforceable while Red Rock pursues that challenge.

A Station Casinos spokesperson said the company will comply with the court order but continues to object to the NLRB decision, which was affirmed by the D.C. court.

“The NLRB decision overturned the clear vote of Red Rock team members rejecting the Culinary Union,” the spokesperson said. “The decision prevents any company from granting benefits to its employees if it is aware of union interest in unionizing 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.”

The D.C. Circuit in June upheld the NLRB’s 2024 decision ordering Red Rock to recognize 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 and later rejected its request to stay the mandate while it sought Supreme Court review.

Red Rock turned to Roberts on Aug. 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, an NLRB representative and, if the union chooses, a union representative.

The order also requires Red Rock to recognize 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 Review-Journal asked the agency whether Red Rock has been served and, if so, when, but had not received a response as of publication Tuesday.

The NLRB found Red Rock committed numerous unfair labor 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 Red Rock’s conduct interfered with employees’ ability to freely choose representation and warranted a bargaining order.

Red Rock disputes those findings and argues, among other things, that companywide employee benefit enhancements cited by the NLRB had been approved before the union filed its petition to represent Red Rock workers. In its emergency application, the casino said its forthcoming 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.