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| Tuesday, July 25, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal NLRB files complaint against Rio The agency alleges the hotel questioned and threatened workers about union activities. By Dave Berns
lasvegas.com Gaming Wire The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against the nonunion Rio after finding evidence that the hotel-casino might have interrogated workers about union activities, threatening them with firings, suspensions, physical harm and the loss of work hours, according to the 20-page document.
Representatives of the Rio and its parent company, Harrah's Entertainment, have denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation began in early April after organizers for Culinary Local 226 documented what they characterized as 143 illegal acts by 44 managers at the off-Strip gaming property -- most of which the union charges target immigrant workers.
The union is attempting to organize about 3,000 food servers, chefs, housekeepers and bartenders, among others, at the 5,000-employee property, which Harrah's Entertainment purchased last year.
"We never expected the second-largest casino company in the world to have a systematic campaign against the most vulnerable workers," said D. Taylor, staff director of the 45,000-member union. "Considering Harrah's has been one of the leaders in the industry I think this reflects badly on the whole industry."
The National Labor Relations Board complaint filed June 30 is scheduled to go before an administrative law judge for an Oct. 23 hearing.
The judge could order the Rio to reinstate with back pay and interest two workers who have been fired, while halting any practices that it concludes violated federal labor laws. Any ruling could be appealed to the full labor relations board, followed by the U.S. Court of Appeals and, ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court.
"We have investigated all of the allegations presented in that filing," said Rio President Jay Sevigny. "The individuals who were named in those claims have all denied the conduct of which they are accused."
It's the union, not the company, that is targeting immigrants, Sevigny added.
"The very nature of the population the union seeks to represent is highly skewed in terms of foreign-born employees," he said, noting that close to half of the property's food-service and housekeeping workers are recent immigrants.
One such worker is Naivi Padron, a 23-year-old Cuban emigre, who arrived in the United States 21 months ago, after receiving a rare exit visa from the Cuban government.
Speaking through an interpreter, Padron charged Monday that she was fired in April after failing to cooperate with a boss who questioned her as part of an effort to identify co-workers involved in the organizing effort.
The pregnant mother, who has a 5-year-old boy, said through an interpreter that she was stunned by the loss of her $10.60-an-hour job, a move that came one day after she received a letter commending her job performance.
It was an act, Padron said, that she expected to occur in Fidel Castro's Cuba -- not the United States.
Prasert "Andy" Duangrudeeswat, a 32-year-old cook in the Rio's Mask restaurant, said he has been hassled by bosses and co-workers since he began wearing a pro-union button at work. It reads: "Local 226 Culinary Workers. Committee Leader."
"They're threatening me, harassing me, intimidating me," Duangrudeeswat said. "The chef told me, 'I can hire you. I can fire you.' "
After arriving in the United States in 1990 and holding a series of jobs that saw him earn as little as $15 a day at a Thai restaurant in Las Vegas, the cook joined the Rio in 1998.
This past spring, Duangrudeeswat attempted to discuss union issues with co-workers in the Rio's employee cafeteria, a move union organizers say is permitted by federal law. But the cook argues that hotel security guards escorted him out of the building to the employee parking lot.
Shortly afterward, his bosses cut his hours, reducing his $13.50-an-hour paycheck by several hundred dollars per pay period, Duangrudeeswat said.
"I feel terrible, but I believe the union can change things," he said. "I still believe in justice."
When told of the stories of Padron and Duangrudeeswat, Harrah's associate general counsel Gerald Einsohn offered a quick reply.
"The majority of this complaint is based on he said, she said," Einsohn observed. "Our supervisors deny they've ever done it."
Meanwhile, the Rio has hired Mark Garrity to lobby against the organizing push. Known as a communicator by company officials and a union buster by union activists, Garrity has worked for a variety of Las Vegas hotels since the mid-1980s to defeat unionization efforts. The Rio is also a past client.
"We have a need to communicate with our employees, too," the Rio's Sevigny said. "Mark is a very effective communicator. Mark tells people the truth."
That said, the Culinary's Taylor said the union's organizing efforts will continue, as the charges of harassment and intimidation circulate.
"We're not going to let them go after the type of workers we're talking about, which are becoming the majority in this industry," Taylor said.
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Mark Ross, from left, Naivi Padron and Poasent "Andy" Duangrudeeswat are among the Rio employees who claim to have been fired or harassed for union organizing at the property.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
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