New Nevada Coronavirus Task Force Could Allow Clark County Bars to Reopen on Thursday

RENO — State officials from a new coronavirus compliance review committee may decide that bars can reopen for business on Thursday. The new state COVID-19 response chief Caleb Cage told the Associated Press that additional direction offered during a Mitigation Task Force meeting could give bar owners in Clark County about 12 hours’ notice that they can reopen for business. Gov. Steve Sisolak gave the task force the authority to allow businesses to reopen last Friday. He reclosed taverns that do not serve food on July 10 in some counties, including Clark County, after a rise in the number of positive COVID-19 tests. Bars in Clark, Washoe, Nye, and Elko counties remain closed if they do not serve food. Bar-top gaming, a main source of income for many taverns, is generally the issue most bars have with closing, and under Sisolak’s directive, those games cannot be in use. The Nevada Gaming Control Board is allowing some of those games to move to standalone units at a reduced capacity and spread out for social distancing. Developing. [AP via Las Vegas Sun]

EASTSIDE — The culinary union contends that Station Casinos withdrew union recognition at Boulder Casino unlawfully after the gaming company announced earlier this week that employees at the resort voted to end their representation by Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165. “Station Casinos continues to waste time trying to bust the union,” writes Geoconda Argüello-Kline, the secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Workers Union Local 226. She says the culinary union filed an unfair labor practice charge regarding the withdrawal and has demanded to negotiate immediately. Employees at the resort originally voted to unionize in 2016. The culinary union says that after workers voted to unionize at Boulder Station, Station Casinos “aggressively fought the Culinary Union’s next election at Palace Station. When federal investigators with the National Labor Board Relations (NLRB) indicated that they would issue a complaint that Station Casinos’ conduct was illegal, Station Casinos settled the charges and agreed to recognize the union.” [EaterWire/ELV]

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