Union that organized Mandalay security workers to file more petitions

By Thomas Moore

Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2016 | 5:13 p.m.

The union that recently successfully organized security workers at the Mandalay Bay says it plans to file petitions to organize more casinos within months.

“Oh yes,” said Dwayne Philips, director of the International Union, Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America (SPFPA). “I’m very confident there will be more petitions filed within the next three to six months.”

Of the more than 260 security workers that will be represented, 163 voted for unionization and 79 against it, according to the SPFPA website.

Philips said the unionization effort at the resort, an MGM Resorts International property, started about four to five months ago with a card campaign.

He said the election, which was held on Dec. 9, was only certified just a few days ago. Las Vegas representatives with the National Labor Relations Board, the governmental body responsible for monitoring and certifying union elections, were unavailable for comment.

MGM representatives wouldn’t comment on future union plans and only released a short statement about the election. “We respect the choice of our employees, and are prepared to bargain in good faith with the union,” said Mary Hynes, a spokeswoman for MGM Resorts.

The company also would not comment on Philips’ assertion that after the vote, MGM Resorts held meetings with employees and labor consultants to respond to the threat of further unionization.

“What I understand is that (MGM management) — and, of course, I cannot prove this but I heard it from people that called me after the fact — is that once the Mandalay Bay union effort was successful they held meetings at other MGM properties at Las Vegas,” Philips said. “And they started (using) their labor consultants, who we call union busters. They started having meetings pretty much starting the propaganda in the hopes to stem this and keep it from leading to to other casinos organizing.”