The Culinary Union filed suit Thursday against the owner of the Western casino in downtown Las Vegas in a dispute over work allegedly moved from union to non-union operations.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, seeks to compel the Western to participate in arbitration of the dispute.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 says in the suit that for more than two years it’s been trying to get the Western to agree to arbitrate its grievance, but casino management refuses to do so.
"Employer repeatedly refused to select an arbitrator claiming this grievance had been settled," the lawsuit charges. "Representatives of Local 226 repeatedly denied that it had been settled as any preliminary agreement that may have been reached was based on material misrepresentations by employer."
The dispute involves a change more than two years ago when change booths were closed and an unspecified number of union workers were laid off when their work was transferred to the non-union main cash cage, the lawsuit says.
A request for comment on the suit was placed with casino owner PlayLV Gaming Operations, which also owns the Plaza and Las Vegas Club hotel-casinos downtown.