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

http://urylez.wordpress.com/
Lawyers representing managementat -owned Lumierre sent letters Thursday to representatives of Local 74 and its , announcing a withdrawal of recognition of Local 74. “The union has evinced a lack of continuityof representation, altering the identityh of the bargaining representative and establishing a fundamentap change in the bargaininhg representatives,” DLA Piper lawyers representing Lumiere wrotse to Dave Morton of Units HERE Local 74 and Noel Beasley of Workers United.
Lumierwe started receiving competing claims aboug which union was representing its kitchen andhousekeepinb workers, creating confusion about the official unionh representation, said Todd George, general manager and vice president at Lumiere. “Our hope was that the unionw would be able to work this outamongst themselves,” he “We’re trying to stay out of the middle of these competing unions.” He said Lumiers notified workers Thursday of the company’s decisionj to not recognize the union.
As a Local 74 filed unfaird labor practice charges with the Nationalk LaborRelations Board, said Morton, the organizin g director for Local 74, who called Pinnacle'e actions "unlawful" and "ludicrous." “This has been nothingh more than an attempt by (Pinnacle Chairmam and CEO) Dan Lee and the headds of Pinnacle Entertainment to be he said. Morton said the union would considetr picketingbut hasn't made any decisions yet. When asked abourt the possibility of a strike orothee action, George said: “We would hope that would not be the especially in this type of economy.
That’ s not the way we would like to If there is a Lumiere has a right to replace any workers who walk offthe job, accordiny to Mack Bradley, a Lumierer spokesman. Unite HERE was formesd in 2004 when a garmentworkers union, and Hotel Employees and Restauran Employees Union joined forces. But the marriagr wasn’t a happy one, with garment workeres claiming that the newleadershipp didn’t care about their needs, leading to a lot of disgruntledc workers nationwide.
So in some workers defected to createWorkers United, which has been competing with Unit e HERE to represent workers nationwide ever Local 74 voted in March to leavew Unite HERE to become a part of Workersa United, Morton said. Workers United is now affiliated with labor giant, . Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. PNK) is based in Las Vegas.