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Representing three riverboat casino workers, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation Aug. 10 sued a consortium of three unions in a federal court in Mississippi alleging that they violated federal labor law by demanding that a casino company comply with a neutrality/card-check agreement signed by its predecessor and other casino operators (Artz v. Miss. River Boat Council, S.D. Miss., No. 1:07cv1006, complaint filed 8/10/07).
The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi alleges that the Mississippi Riverboat Council--a consortium made up of UNITE HERE, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and the International Union of Operating Engineers--violated Section 302 of the Labor-Management Relations Act by demanding that the Gulfside Casino Partnership provide organizing assistance to the unions. Gulfside owns the Island View Casino Resort located in Gulfport, Miss.
The suit seeks a declaratory judgment that the neutrality/card-check agreement is facially invalid under the LMRA and that the unions violated Section 302(b)(1) by demanding "things of value" in the form of information about Gulfside's employees, access to its property and facilities, and "control" over its "communications and personnel" under the agreement. The suit also seeks an injunction barring the unions from attempting to enforce the agreement and from requesting or receiving from Gulfside the alleged things of value.
Although the complaint names Gulfside as a defendant, and states that it is a violation of Section 302(a) for an employer to provide any "thing of value" to a union, the complaint states that Gulfside refused to comply with the agreement and does not request any relief against the company.
The Section 302 provisions "are meant to prevent sweetheart deals between employers and unions which induce union officials to sell out the interests of the employees they are supposed to represent," NRTW said in an Aug. 14 statement. The group asserted that agreements such as the one involved in this case allow union organizers to "make 'house calls' where they can intimidate or harass employees into signing cards that are then counted as 'votes' for unionization."
Andrew J. Kahn of Davis, Cowell & Bowe in San Francisco represents the consortium and the three unions in a related suit filed by Gulfside. He called the NRTW suit "a last-ditch effort to avoid the pending motion [in the other case] to compel arbitration" of the dispute. "It's pretty sorry that [NRTW] chooses to clog the courts with duplicative litigation," Kahn told BNA Aug. 16. He observed that courts have rejected similar Section 302 arguments in previous cases, and he asserted that neutrality/card-check agreements "are better for employers and employees" than organizing campaigns conducted without such agreements.
NRTW "continues to push the outlandish claim, which has already been rejected in several other jurisdictions, that an employer and union violate federal labor law when they takes responsible steps giving employees the opportunity to exercise their right to join a union and bargain collectively," Teamsters spokeswoman Leigh Strope said Aug. 16. "We are confident that these extreme and radical misrepresentations of the requirements of federal labor law will again be rejected by the court."
Gulfside's attorneys were not available to comment on the NRTW suit.
Gulfside Bought Casino Destroyed in Hurricane
According to the complaint, the consortium and the three unions in October 2004 entered into the agreement with Grand Casinos of Mississippi Inc. Biloxi, Grand Casinos of Mississippi LLC Gulfport, Sheraton Tunica Corp., and BL Development Corp. covering riverboat casino and landside operations. The agreement provides that in the event of a sale of a riverboat casino or its operational assets, the covered employers will require the successor company to agree to be bound in place of the predecessor.
Hurricane Katrina in late August 2005 destroyed the casino owned by Grand Casinos of Mississippi LLC Gulfport. According to the complaint, the casino ceased all operations and terminated its employees. Gulfside then "purchased the non-operational remains" of the casino in December 2005 and opened the Island View casino in September 2006.
The complaint alleges that the unions last February gave notice to Gulfside of their intent to organize its workers and demanded that the company comply with the agreement. Gulfside denied that it is bound by the agreement and last February sued the consortium and the three unions in the same district court seeking a declaratory judgment that it is not bound by the agreement and that it is void under federal labor law (Gulfside Casino P'ship v. Miss. Riverboat Council, S.D. Miss, No. 1:07cv110). The court has not yet ruled on the unions' motion to compel arbitration of the dispute.
The agreement, which was attached as an exhibit to the complaint, provides that the covered employers will not state or imply any opposition to their employees' selecting a bargaining representative or to any particular union. If the union consortium provides notice of intent to organize a group of employees, the employer must provide union representatives with access to the facilities and casino employees in nonpublic areas and during nonworking times and provide a list of the employees, their job titles and departments, and their home addresses. The consortium agreed that its representatives would not coerce or threaten any employee in an effort to obtain a signed union authorization card.
The agreement calls for an arbitrator to review the cards and other evidence, such as membership in any of the three unions, and to determine whether a majority of employees has designated the consortium as the bargaining representative. The employers agreed to recognize the consortium if the majority finds proof of majority support and agreed to refrain from filing an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board. The parties agreed to resolve any disputes through arbitration, not by filing unfair labor practices charges with NLRB. The consortium agreed not to engage in any picketing or other economic activity aimed at a covered employer prior to recognition of the union.
According to the complaint, the unions entered into the agreement to further "their self-interest" and "made concessions at the expense of employees they exclusively represent in collective bargaining in exchange, quid pro quo, for the signatory employers' agreement." The complaint alleges that the requested organizing assistance "has commercial and monetary worth" and "has value to the Unions."
NRTW Lost Two Similar Section 302 Suits
NRTW has filed similar Section 302 suits that have not fared well in the courts.
A federal district court in North Carolina in November 2006 dismissed a suit against the United Auto Workers and Freightliner LLC alleging that their neutrality/card-check agreement violated Section 302 and was a predicate act under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (222 DLR A-1, 11/17/06 ).
The complaint alleged that Freightliner "delivered valuable organizing assistance" to UAW in exchange for "the union making bargaining concessions at the expense of employees the union represents," but the court found "there is no evidence that 'things of value' were improperly exchanged." An appeal is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
In April 2006, a federal district court in Ohio agreed with the United Steelworkers and Heartland Industrial Partners that their neutrality/card-check agreement did not constitute giving the union something of value in violation of Section 302 (79 DLR AA-1, 4/25/06 ). An appeal is pending in the Sixth Circuit.
William L. Messenger with NRTW in Springfield, Va., and Thomas E. Vaughn of Vaughn, Bowden & Wooten in Gulfport represent the three casino workers. Armin J. Moeller and David M. Thomas of Balch & Bingham in Jackson, Miss., represent Gulfside in its suit against the unions. Dennis L. Horn of Horn & Payne in Madison, Miss., along with Kahn, represents the unions in the suit filed by Gulfside.
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