Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LABOR—UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES—D. Nev.: Court declines casino’s request for injunction to halt ‘unconstitutional’ NLRB proceedings, (Oct 2, 2025)

By Jason Albright, J.D.

A union alleged that the employers undertook anti-union campaigns that led to workers voting to decertify it at several resort-casinos.

A federal district court has declined a request for declaratory and injunctive relief in NLRB proceedings before Administrative Law Judges against Red Rock Resorts and associated resort-casinos stemming from charges that the employers engaged in unfair labor practices in the course of anti-union campaigns. The employers’ Seventh Amendment claim was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, and because the case involves a labor dispute, the Norris-LaGuardia Act barred injunctive relief with respect to their remaining claims (Red Rock Resorts, Inc. v. NLRB, No. 2:24-cv-01966-ART-BNW (D. Nev. Sept. 30, 2025)).

Organizing drive. In 2016 and 2017, according to the court, hundreds of food and beverage workers at the employers’ resort-casinos elected the union to bargain on their behalf regarding their terms of employment. Orders from ALJs and the court subsequently required them to recognize the union at other facilities.

Anti-union campaigns and charges. According to the union, the employers then undertook anti-union campaigns using unfair labor practices, and the campaigns led to workers voting to decertify the union at many of the employers’ resort-casinos. The union filed charges with the NLRB on those grounds, and the General Counsel brought the charges before an ALJ.

Two separate consolidated proceedings. The ALJs overseeing the charges consolidated them into two separate proceedings: Citywide I and Citywide II.

In Citywide I, the General Counsel alleged that the employers unlawfully infringed on their employees’ right to organize. The employers allegedly fired employees who had filed labor charges with the NLRB or testified in NLRB proceedings. Managers allegedly told employees that the union would never reach a contract with them, that employees would lose their benefits if they supported the union, and that employees “would have to watch their coworkers burn to the ground because they would not be able to help them if they selected [the Union] as their collective-bargaining representative.”

A management employee allegedly threatened laid-off employees during the COVID-19 pandemic that the employers “would not consider for hire applicants who previously worked for [Plaintiffs’ casinos] and had a history of supporting the Union.” And the employers allegedly carried out that threat against many employees who had supported the union. The Citywide I charges also alleged that the employers treated more favorably employees who opposed the union.

In Citywide II, the General Counsel alleged that the employers engaged in further unfair labor practices during and after the pandemic. The employers allegedly strategically fired workers who had supported the union and then engaged in mass hiring of new workers, violating a Nevada law that required them to rehire workers laid off due to the pandemic. Allegedly, the employers disciplined an employee because she had complained to the NLRB that a supervisor had sexually harassed her. One of the employers’ employees allegedly bragged about supervisors “giving him accolades for disciplining employees who supported [the Union] and participated in [NLRB] investigations.”

The consolidation orders in both proceedings detailed several other examples of alleged unfair labor practices, and both Citywide proceedings are ongoing, according to the court.

Employers’ lawsuit. While the Citywide proceedings were ongoing, the employers sued in federal district court in Nevada for declaratory and injunctive relief against NLRB members, the General Counsel, NLRB staff, and at least one ALJ based on allegedly unconstitutional removal protections, alleged separation of powers violations, and alleged violation of the employers’ Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.

Decertifications and avoidance of bargaining. And despite the union’s efforts since 2016—winning elections to represent several thousand workers in many of the employers’ casino-resorts—the union has since been decertified at all but one of the casinos, and the employers have succeeded in avoiding ever entering bargaining.

Present motions. After filing suit, the employers moved for a preliminary injunction against the NLRB and ALJ to halt the proceedings pending resolution of their constitutional challenges. The NLRB responded on both the merits of the employers’ motion for an injunction and on jurisdictional grounds. The union also moved to intervene, with no opposition from either side, and its motion was granted. The union filed additional arguments and evidence in favor of denying an injunction.

Seventh Amendment challenge. The court first held that it lacks subject-matter jurisdiction to hear the employers’ Seventh Amendment challenge, in which they argued that the General Counsel’s intent to seek compensatory or consequential damages unconstitutionally violates their right to a jury trial under SEC v. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. 109, 122 (2024). Applying Thunder Basin, the court found that the first factor weighed against district court jurisdiction “because the NLRA does not foreclose meaningful judicial review of Plaintiffs’ Seventh Amendment claim.” Likewise as to the second factor: the employers’ Seventh Amendment claim was not collateral to proceedings that will consider what remedies, if any, to impose against them. And the third factor weighed against district court jurisdiction because the employers’ Seventh Amendment claim is not outside the NLRB’s expertise, according to the court. Because the Thunder Basin factors thus all weighed against the district court exercising jurisdiction over the employers’ Seventh Amendment claim, the court found that it lacked jurisdiction to hear it and dismissed it.

Application of Norris-LaGuardia Act to remaining claims. As to the employers’ remaining claims, the court held that the Norris-LaGuardia Act (NLGA) prevented it from issuing an injunction because the case grows out of or involves a labor dispute, and the employers did not seek an injunction under the NLGA. The NLGA, according to the court, “applies to all labor disputes, broadly defined,” and “[w]hile this case does involve constitutional questions about administrative agencies, it also involves a labor dispute between a union, employees, and an employer.” The NLGA does not require “‘that each dispute relevant to the case be a labor dispute,’” according to the court, “as long as a labor dispute is at the matrix of the controversy.” And this was such a case.

Having found that the NLGA applies, the court observed that any request for injunctive relief is governed by that statute, which generally prohibits injunctive relief for any labor dispute subject to limited exceptions that employers had not argued applied. And by declining to seek relief under Section 107 of the NGLA, the employers gave up their only avenue for injunctive relief.

Finally, the court rejected the employers’ argument that the NLGA unlawfully bars judicial review. The NLGA, said the court, “merely bars injunctive relief, not judicial review, and Congress’s power to explicitly strip courts of certain remedies is well-settled. Here, that means that this Court has jurisdiction to decide Plaintiff’s constitutional challenges but cannot order injunctive relief.”

The employers’ motion for a preliminary injunction was accordingly denied.

The case is No. 2:24-cv-01966-ART-BNW.

Judge: Traum, A.

Attorneys: Barbara Jean D'Aquila (Fisher & Phillips) for Red Rock Resorts Inc., Station Holdco, LLC, Station Casinos LLC, NP Boulder LLC dba Boulder Station Hotel & Casino, NP Fiesta LLC dba Fiesta Rancho Hotel & Casino, FP Holdings, L.P. dba Palms Casino Resort and Palms Place, Fiesta ParentCo, L.L.C., NP Lake Mead LLC dba Fiesta Henderson Casino Hotel, NP Palace LLC dba Palace Station Hotel & Casino, NP Red Rock LLC dba Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa, NP Santa Fe LLC dba Santa Fe Station Hotel & Casino, NP Sunset LLC dba Sunset Station Hotel & Casino, NP Texas, LLC dba Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel, and Station GVR Acquisition, LLC dba Green Valley Ranch Resort Spa & Casino. Grace L. Pezzella for the NLRB, Jennifer Abruzzo, Lauren McFerran, Marvin Kaplan, Gwynne Wilcox, David M. Prouty, Cornele A. Overstreet, and Amita Tracy.

Companies: Red Rock Resorts Inc.; Station Holdco, LLC; Station Casinos LLC; NP Boulder LLC; Boulder Station Hotel & Casino; NP Fiesta LLC; Fiesta Rancho Hotel & Casino; FP Holdings, L.P.; Palms Casino Resort and Palms Place; Fiesta ParentCo, L.L.C.; NP Lake Mead LLC; Fiesta Henderson Casino Hotel; NP Santa Fe LLC; Santa Fe Station Hotel & Casino; NP Sunset LLC; Sunset Station Hotel & Casino; NP Texas, LLC; Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel; Station GVR Acquisition, LLC; Green Valley Ranch Resort Spa & Casino

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