FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, January 31, 2022
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
Culinary Union calls on SEC to examine board diversity claims by Red Rock Resorts
RRR IPO Dissected: Red Rock Resorts' deficient board diversity claims
Las Vegas, NV – Red Rock Resorts Inc. (NASDAQ: RRR), the owner and operator of the casino chain Station Casinos, is the only publicly traded Nevada gaming company with zero women on its board of directors. In a letter to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Culinary Union - Nevada’s largest organization of workers, women, and immigrants, asks regulators to examine what the Culinary Union considers to be Red Rock Resorts' deficient board diversity claims, citing the fact that Red Rock Resorts board of directors has consisted of the same five white men since 2015.
Letter from the Culinary Union calling on the SEC to examine board diversity claims by Red Rock Resorts is available here.
“A gaming license is not an obstacle to board diversity because every publicly traded Nevada gaming company has women on their board except Red Rock Resorts,” said Geoconda Argüello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union. “26% of board directors at these other Nevada gaming companies are women, so why is Red Rock Resorts claiming Nevada gaming regulations make it difficult to identify well-qualified candidates who would change its board’s composition?”
“The push for diversity at the top of companies and teams is underway everywhere from Wall Street to the NFL,” continued Argüello-Kline, “the pool of female directors for Nevada casino gaming companies appears to be no smaller than national averages.”
The SEC recently approved Nasdaq’s plan to boost diversity on corporate boards by requiring each Nasdaq-listed company by August 2023 “to have, or explain why it does not have, at least two members of its board of directors who are diverse” and in 2020, NFL owners approved “bold new steps” to enhance diversity in the League.
Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, Red Rock Resorts’s controlling owners and chair and vice-chair of its board, have reportedly expressed interest in owning an NFL franchise. Lorenzo Fertitta told TMZ he “we would love too, yeah” and CBS Sports reported Frank Fertitta among potential buyers for the Carolina Panthers in 2018.
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ABOUT CULINARY UNION:
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
The Culinary Union, through the Culinary Health Fund, is one of the largest healthcare consumers in the state. The Culinary Health Fund is sponsored by the Culinary Union and Las Vegas-area employers. It provides health insurance coverage for over 145,000 Nevadans, the Culinary Union’s members and their dependents.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages. We are proud to have helped over 18,000 immigrants become American citizens and new voters since 2001 through our affiliate, The Citizenship Project.
The Culinary Union has a diverse membership which is 55% women and 45% immigrants. The demographics of Culinary Union members are approximately: 54% Latinx, 18% white, 15% Asian, 12% Black, and less than 1% Indigenous Peoples.
Culinary Union members work as: Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers. The Culinary Union has been fighting for working families in Nevada for 87 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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