Station Casinos
Mud Lists
2,261 Las Vegas community members on Station Casinos MUD lists in 2020.
It is illegal for an employer to discriminate based on union preference when hiring workers.
Station Casinos executives ordered supervisors to prepare MUD lists to indicate which employees were:
*pro-management (M)
*pro-union (U)
*don’t know (D).
The Chief Operating Officer requested MUD LISTS.
During the pandemic, Red Rock Resorts, Inc. (“RRR”)’s Chief Operating Officer wrote to General Managers and the VP of Human Resources:
The Chief Operating Officer needed a list of the most company positive internal maintenance (“IM”) workers to offer work to.
Station Casinos MUD List made it into A Time Magazine ARTICLE
When the Culinary Workers Union tried to organize the Red Rock Casino Resort Spa in Nevada, casino executives allegedly ordered supervisors to prepare a “MUD list” to indicate which employees were pro-management (M), pro-union (U), or don’t know (D), and threatened workers with the loss of benefits if they supported a union, according to the administrative law judge’s decision. The judge found that the casino committed 20 unfair labor practices before the union election, including serving branded “VOTE NO” steaks to employees in advance of the union vote, and assigning a worker who served on the union committee since 2009 to clean floor drains even though she had been placed on “light duty” assignment after an injury. The judge found that Red Rock engaged in unfair labor practices and ordered the company to cease and desist from threatening employees with reprisals if they select union representation. Red Rock appealed the decision and the case is still open.
OCTOBER 13, 2022
“You will be reviewing the MUD lists in depth.”
MUD Lists were the subject of text messages between the heads of human resources at Boulder Station and Palace Station.
MUD LISTS were updated
Two months after the COVID shutdown, the VP and GM of Palace Station wrote property managers in May 2020 in an email titled “Onward and Upward”:
MUD LISTS were used to decide which employees to bring back
In July 2020 the Director of Hotel Operations at Palms Place told the Corporate VP of Hotel & Revenue Management:
Management said MUD lists WERE
necessary to the rehiring process
In August 2020, the HR Director at Boulder Station wrote to the property’s Executive Team:
RED ROCK RESORTS INC:
LEFT TO RIGHT: Robert Cashell (Board Member), Robert Lewis (Board Member), Scott Kreeger (President), Robert Finch (Chief Operating Officer), Lorenzo Fertitta (Controlling Owner, Vice Chair of Board), Frank Fertitta III (Controlling Owner, Chairman of Board and CEO), Dr. James Nave (Board Member), Stephen Cootey (Chief Financial Officer), and Jeffrey T. Welch (Chief Legal Officer).
Red Rock Resorts:
The credibility of certain RRR executives while testifying under oath was questioned by an Administrative Law Judge of the NLRB in the Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa case discussed in the Time Magazine article.
In April 2022, Administrative Law Judge Jeffery Wedekind issued a decision with proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law against Red Rock Casino.
An important part of Judge Wedekind’s role in the case was to assess the credibility of witnesses who testified at trial, including RRR’s Chief Legal Officer Jeffrey Welch, Chief Financial Officer Stephen Cootey, and Chief Operating Officer Robert Finch.
The judge found these executives to be not credible when testifying under oath about matters at issue in the case. Red Rock Casino has asked the NLRB in Washington D.C. to overturn Judge Wedekind’s decision’s credibility findings.
Stephen Cootey
Chief Financial Officer
Robert Finch
Chief Operating Officer
Jeffrey Welch
Chief Legal Officer
Red Rock Resorts:
Robert Cashell, Robert Lewis, and Dr. James Nave serve on the Board of Directors Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
As such, they are tasked with overseeing an annual evaluation of the Red Rock Resorts Board and management and with making recommendations for improvement where necessary.
Has the company’s use of MUD LISTS been the subject of an annual evaluation by the Committee? If so, what recommendations for improvements has it made?
Robert Cashell
Robert Lewis
Dr. James Nave
Red rock resorts:
Code of business conduct & ethics
RRR’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics says that "All Team Members, suppliers, representatives and agents of the Company must conform to ethical and legal standards, abide by the law and preserve the Company's integrity and reputation."
Is the use of MUD LISTS to classify workers on the basis of their union sentiment consistent with RRR’s Code of Business Conduct and Ethics?