The thousands of workers at Station Casinos, the third largest private employer in the Las Vegas area, have a simple request. They want a fair process, free of managerial interference, to decide whether to have union representation.

Today they delivered a petition to Station’s management, seeking that fairness and signed by a majority of the workers. At a press conference this morning in Las Vegas announcing the workers’ petition, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said:

Amid the glamor of the strip and downtown, most workers have been given the opportunity to come together that these casino workers have been denied. But today is a major step toward giving these workers the fair process they deserve.

Says Michael Wagner, a bartender at Station’s Green Valley Ranch:

All workers in Las Vegas should have job security, good wages and solid health care. I want Station to respect me and my right to organize.

Station Casinos operates 18 casinos outside of downtown Las Vegas. Since a 2007 buyout that netted the casino owners and insiders $660 million, workers have not had a raise, have had the cost of their health insurance increased and have seen the loss of thousands of jobs—20 percent of their workforce—through layoffs and subcontracting.

The workers went public last year with their desire for a fair process to choose whether to form a union. In response, Station Casinos launched an aggressive and hostile anti-union campaign, including firing and threatening workers and a TV and print ad campaign attacking the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 of UNITEHERE.

In September, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge found Station Casinos guilty of breaking federal labor law 88 times. The company is appealing.

Trumka says, “What these workers are calling for is simple”:

an end to the bullying, an end to the illegal behavior by bosses trying to divide people. They—as all do—deserve a fair, peaceful process without being fired or threatened. And a process agreed to by every other casino on the strip and downtown.

Visit www.workerstation.org and https://www.facebook.com/workerstation for more information.