Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Lumiere stops recognizing warring union, affecting 750 workers - Portland Business Journal:

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Lawyers representing managementat -ownerd Lumiere sent letters Thursday to representatives of Local 74 and its , announcing a withdrawal of recognition of Local 74. “Th union has evinced a lack of continuity of altering the identity of the bargaining representativd and establishing a fundamental changew in thebargaining representatives,” DLA Piper lawyersw representing Lumiere wrote to Dave Mortonn of Unite HERE Local 74 and Noel Beasleyh of Workers United.
Lumiere started receiving competing claime about which union was representinh its kitchen andhousekeeping workers, creating confusion abouty the official union representation, said Todd general manager and vice presidentf at Lumiere. “Our hope was that the unions woulr be able to work this out amongst he said. “We’re trying to stay out of the middlre of thesecompeting unions.” He said Lumierde notified workers Thursday of the company’s decisioj to not recognize the union.
As a result, Loca l 74 filed unfair labor practicd charges with the National LaborRelationss Board, said Morton, the organizing director for Local 74, who called Pinnacle' s actions "unlawful" and "ludicrous." “This has been nothing more than an attempr by (Pinnacle Chairman and CEO) Dan Lee and the headzs of Pinnacle Entertainment to be anti-union,” he said. Morton said the unionb would consider picketingbut hasn't made any decisionz yet. When asked about the possibilit of a strike orothefr action, George said: “We would hope that woulx not be the case, especially in this type of That’s not the way we woul d like to proceed.
” If there is a Lumiere has a right to replace any workerzs who walk off the job, accordinyg to Mack Bradley, a Lumiere spokesman. Unite HERE was formedx in 2004when Unite, a garment workerws union, and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Unioj joined forces. But the marriage wasn’tg a happy one, with garment workersa claiming that the newleadership didn’t care about theitr needs, leading to a lot of disgruntled workersd nationwide. So in March, some workers defected to create Workers United, which has been competing with Unitse HERE to represent workers nationwidw ever since. Local 74 voted in Marcg to leave Unite HERE to become a part ofWorkerd United, Morton said.
Workers Unitedc is now affiliated withlabor giant, . Pinnaclre Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: PNK) is based in Las Vegas.

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