Station Casinos: In your face

For a company that bridles at negative press coverage, Station Casinos has a genius for provoking it. Case in point: Its increasingly hysteria-tinged campaign toward the Culinary Union. Up until now, it’s been confined to a series of overwrought, unintentionally amusing, sometimes factually debatable TV spots. Now they’re taking it to a mailbox near you. In the two years that my wife and I have lived at our present address, we have received not one piece of direct mail from Station soliciting our business. Zippo. Squat. Nada. A big, fat zero. Although we continued to patronize its properties, as far as Station was concerned we had ceased to exist.

Until today.

What to my wondering eyes should appear but an 11″ X 11″ glossy mailer, addressed to “The McKee Household Or Current Resident.” Over a darkly shaded picture of an empty casino floor (must be Aliante Station), it balefully asks, “WHAT IF … What if they stopped coming?” On the flip, it elaborates, “What if conventions stopped coming to Las Vegas?” (emphasis from the original)

First, let’s the cut the crap. Conventions aren’t going to stop coming to Vegas (unless the state enacts one of those “Driving while Hispanic” laws and boycotts ensue). They might stop coming to Station Casinos, yes, but they’ve got no shortage of other options in the Vegas market, a fact that’s undoubtedly bunched CEO Frank Fertitta III‘s shorts in a wad. Leaning all but exclusively on the Ian Collins complaint letter to the Culinary that Jon Ralston released a while back, the flier accuses the union of: “Making harassing phone calls. Showing up at their [whose?] businesses. Even their homes.” Oh, like your direct-mail piece is doing, unbidden, in my mail box? Seriously, in 13 years in Las Vegas — unless you count one misinformed but exceptionally polite petition-gatherer for Caesars Entertainment — no gaming company nor the Culinary has ever gotten up in my business as a private citizen like this.

The flier goes on to accuse the Culinary of spending dues money “to bully companies that choose to host their conventions at hotels the union bosses don’t approve of [sic].” Yeah, it’s called “activism” and — brace yourselves — it’s what unions do, whether against companies that discriminate (although the Culinary has been spineless and virtually AWOL on that front) or engage in anti-union activities. For instance, companies that sack an entire casino’s workforce (*cough*Santa Fe*cough*) because it had won the right to unionize. Station is no stranger to playing hardball — ask anybody who was left out of pocket in the recent bankruptcy — so its current damsel-in-distress mode is pretty rich irony, if you’ve got the stomach for it. For that matter, what is Deutsche Bank-installed CFO Marc Falcone doing signing off on this high-cost/low-return profligacy in the ad department?

The flabby rationale for this sudden blizzard of direct mail? “IT’S SOMETHING SOUTHERN NEVADANS NEED TO KNOW.” Trust me, if they read the newspapers or watch TV, they already know. At least the teevee spots are not going to fill up our trashcans and landfills. Thanks for adding to our littering problem, Station. (I’m thinking that local garbage monopolist Republic Services is the only winner in this scenario.) Also, it makes you start to wonder … all the thousands of dollars spent to produce and distribute this flier — and all the tens of thousands of bucks in purchased TV time — might that not be better spent on raising employee salaries, 401[k] matches, improved working conditions, etc. Or if that’s just too wild, crazy and ‘socialistic’ for you, how about using the money to pay down debt, of which Station has its fair share. Such propaganda largesse puts the Vincent “Whiskers” Barile‘s mewl about how Station was destitute until the Fertitta Brothers bought back some of the company (at a flea-market price, one might add) in a whole new light. Where was all this advertising diñero when Station was going into default and squeezing the video poker paytables? (Yes, whoever captioned that photo above got the names reversed.)

As for the Culinary, my advice is this: Call Station’s bluff. Say you’ll agree to a secret-ballot election. (It’s American way, after all.) If somebody tries to fiddle with the results, the National Labor Relations Board has a pretty good track record when it comes to sorting out such misdeeds. And if, in some unlikely event, the vote goes against you and it’s clean, take your lumps and start digging in against attempted contract rollbacks in the next round of Las Vegas Strip and Downtown bargaining. Because, I guarantee you, they’re coming.