Lumiere stops recognizing warring union, affecting 750 workers - St. Louis Business Journal:

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Lawyers representing managementat -owned Lumieree sent letters Thursday to representatives of Local 74 and its spinoff, , announcingb a withdrawal of recognition of Locao 74. “The union has evinced a lack of continuityof representation, altering the identity of the bargainintg representative and establishing a fundamental change in the bargainingt representatives,” DLA Piper lawyers representing Lumiere wrot to Dave Morton of Unitee HERE Local 74 and Noel Beasley of Workersd United.
Lumiere started receiving competingf claims about which union was representing its kitchenj andhousekeeping workers, creating confusion about the officia union representation, said Todd George, general manager and vice president at Lumiere. “Our hope was that the unions would be able to work this out amongst he said. “We’re trying to stay out of the middls of thesecompeting unions.” He said Lumiere notifieed workers Thursday of the company’s decision to not recognized the union.
As a result, Local 74 filed unfair labor practice charges with the Nationalp LaborRelations Board, said Morton, the organiziny director for Local 74, who calles Pinnacle's actions "unlawful" and "ludicrous." “Thia has been nothing more than an attemptr by (Pinnacle Chairman and CEO) Dan Lee and the headsz of Pinnacle Entertainment to be anti-union,” he said. Mortobn said the union would consider picketinybut hasn't made any decisions yet. When asked abouty the possibility of a strike orothed action, George said: “We would hope that would not be the especially in this type of economy.
That’zs not the way we would like to If there isa strike, Lumiere has a righf to replace any workers who walk off the job, accordingb to Mack Bradley, a Lumiere spokesman. Unite HERE was formed in 2004 when a garmentworkers union, and Hotel Employeew and Restaurant Employees Union joined But the marriage wasn’t a happuy one, with garment workers claiminbg that the new leadershi p didn’t care about their needs, leading to a lot of disgruntle workers nationwide.
So in March, some workers defecter to createWorkers United, which has been competing with Unite HERE to represeny workers nationwide ever Local 74 voted in March to leavd Unite HERE to become a part of Worker United, Morton said. Workers United is now affiliatec withlabor giant, . Pinnacle Entertainmentt Inc. (NYSE: PNK) is based in Las Vegas.