Wynn Las Vegas Engineer Alleges Managers Questioned Her Union Support and Urged Her to Retire

What happened

A Wynn Las Vegas employee says resort managers asked her about union organizing and then encouraged her to retire, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The claim is the newest in a series of retaliation and surveillance allegations against the Strip resort.

The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 501 filed the charge Oct. 22 with the National Labor Relations Board's Phoenix regional office. According to the agency's docket, the case remains open. The charge alleges unlawful interrogation, retaliation related to concerted activity, and coercive actions including surveillance.

What the employee says

The allegations

The union identified the worker as Colleen Donahue, a pool shop engineer at Wynn Las Vegas. In a statement released through the union, Donahue said management asked whether she supported a union and whether she had talked about organizing with co-workers. She said managers then encouraged her to retire.

Her view of organizing at the resort

Donahue described the resort as an outlier on the Strip. "We are the only property on the Strip that is not union because of the intimidation tactics they use," she said in the union's statement, as reported by the Review-Journal. She added, "People are scared to join the union because they're afraid of being fired."

Earlier complaints against the resort

Two former workers filed in August

The new charge follows complaints filed with the NLRB in August by two former Wynn employees, Randall Crank and Napco Sharma. Crank is a former central plant manager who worked at Wynn for 13 years, and Sharma is a former kitchen shop engineer. They accused the resort of firing them over their support for unionizing and of directing managers to watch employees' union activity.

Wynn's response

Wynn Resorts denied the earlier allegations in September, the Review-Journal reported. The company called them unsubstantiated and said it was confident they would be found to be without merit. Wynn Resorts did not immediately respond to the newspaper's request for comment on the latest charge.

Why the dispute matters on the Strip

Local 501 represents more than 10,000 workers across Nevada, Arizona and Southern California. The union says Wynn Las Vegas is the last flagship resort on the Strip whose facilities maintenance workers are not unionized.

What the law says

Federal labor law protects employees' right to organize and bars employers from interfering with that right. The Review-Journal noted that the latest NLRB filing lists allegations against Wynn but does not establish that the company broke the law. The charge was filed with the agency's Phoenix regional office.

What to watch next

• The NLRB's Phoenix regional office has the Oct. 22 charge filed by Local 501, and the case remains open on the agency's docket.
• Wynn Resorts had not responded to the Review-Journal's request for comment on the newest allegations.