Sheldon Adelson's Anti-Union Fight Continues

Union members blindly support Predatory Gambling, believing well paid union jobs will result in an industry widely known for its anti-union stance.

Sheldon Adelson will fight the ruling below for the next 10 years.

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Sands ordered to accept guard union
Bethlehem casino to appeal NLRB finding of unfair labor practices with security guards

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem The Morning Call, MORNING CALL FILE PHOTO May 31, 2011 Over the past 23 years, Sheldon Adelson has built the world's largest casino company — bigger than the next 10 competitors combined. He's done it without having a single of his 40,000 workers in Bethlehem, Las Vegas and Asia join a labor union. Now, a band of security guards making $13 an hour may be on the verge of ending the world's 14th richest person's winning streak. The National Labor Relations Board has ordered Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem to begin bargaining with its 130 security guards as a labor union. Pending appeal to a federal court, Local 777 would become the first union in the Sands' $35 billion gaming empire. The NLRB ruling, dated Wednesday, states that Sands engaged in unfair labor practices by refusing to bargain with the guards, and ordered casino officials to recognize that the guards are a union. Sands officials called the ruling routine, and pledged to appeal the matter to a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. "It's been a good clean fight, but it's time to sit down and start talking," said George Bonser, lead delegate for local unit of the Law Enforcement Employees Benevolent Association. "They certainly fought us every step of the way, but I'm hoping we can finally start bargaining." That's not likely to happen soon. "In order to appeal various irregularities which led to the certification of LEEBA, federal law requires Sands to refuse to bargain with LEEBA. With Wednesday's decision in hand, Sands may now pursue an appeal in federal court," Sands officials said in a written statement Friday. "This morning Sands filed a Petition for Review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia." Though a relatively small bargaining unit in Las Vegas Sands' smallest casino, the guards could find themselves as an unlikely victor against a casino company whose founder has aggressively resisted organized labor for more than two decades. In Las Vegas, Adelson is one of the only casino owners who has been able to keep the powerful, 60,000-member culinary union out of his gambling resorts, in part by paying his workers more than union workers. At one point, Adelson even fought to keep culinary union workers from leafleting on the public sidewalk outside the Venetian. When police and local courts told him he couldn't, he spent eight years appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court before giving up. The guards in Bethlehem first asked to seek certification in May 2011 and voted in July to unionize. They called themselves Local 777, the so-called lucky numbers Sands uses in its address and phone number. "We weren't trying to be smart or disrespectful," Bonser said. "We just kind of liked it." Sands appealed several of the guards' efforts and, last August, alleged that the guards had intimidated their colleagues into voting to unionize. Those allegations were withdrawn and the guards sought to begin bargaining for a contract in March, but Sands officials refused, according to the NLRB ruling. In its order, the NLRB directs Sands to recognize the union, begin bargaining and post a copy of its order in a visible place at the casino for at least 60 days. At more than $13 an hour, Sands guards are among the highest paid casino guards in the state, but their beef is not over pay, said LEEBA spokesman Peter Luck. Guards decided to unionize primarily to have a say in disciplinary policies and grievance procedures. The casino, which opened in 2009, has been heralded as the economic engine in the redevelopment of the former Bethlehem Steel land in south Bethlehem. In addition to the casino, Sands has built a 302-room hotel, a shopping mall and a concert and events venue that now combine to employ more than 2,000 people. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-bethlehem-sands-casino-guards-20120601,0,4141384.story What's known is that Adelson fought hard and successfully in the 1990s to block unionization at his Las Vegas casinos. Currently, the Department of Justice and the US Securities Exchange Commission are investigating his Las Vegas Sands Corp. for alleged bribery of foreign officials in Macau, where he owns a casino that now produces more revenue than his Las Vegas operations. From: How the gambling industry has made Newt Gingrich a viable candidate Sheldon Adelson turned to Gingrich in the late 1990s, when a culinary union tried to organize his employees during the building of the Venetian Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Gingrich, then House speaker, helped Adelson craft his antiunion pitch, say those close to the CEO. Adelson, in return, invited Gingrich to speak and honored him with a fund-raiser. Gingrich went on to support legislation in Nevada that Adelson backed to curtail the ability of labor unions to automatically deduct money from members' paychecks for political activities. From:  Casino mogul fills Gingrich's South Carolina war chest ...quoted Adelson as saying that “old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats.” The Boston Globe also noted that Adelson has "waged some bitter anti-union battles in Las Vegas". From: Organized Crime, Las Vegas Sands and the Sheldon Adelson Connection