Officials at the National Labor Relations Board have ordered a group of Las Vegas casinos to bargain with a union even though the union lost its election, finding that the companys illegal behavior spoiled the vote.

The decision against Station Casinos marks the first time the labor board has issued whats known as a Cemex order, so named for a landmark case it ruled on last year. The new process makes it more likely that employers who break the law during an organizing campaign will be required to recognize the union regardless of the elections outcome.

In this case, the board found Station Casinos had committed extensive coercive and unlawful misconduct, part of a carefully crafted corporate strategy intentionally designed at every step to interfere with employees free choice to choose a union or not.

Workers at three Station hotel-casinos Red Rock, Boulder Station and Palace Station voted 627 to 534 against joining the Culinary Workers Union in 2019. But the board, which referees private-sector labor disputes, found that the company broke the law several times by making threats, punishing union supporters and promising new benefits so that employees would reject the union.

Managers committed serious pervasive unlawful misconduct well before employees filed for a union election, and continued such misconduct at least six months after the vote had concluded, the board found.

In the most colorful example, two days before the vote Station served workers hundreds of free steaks that had been branded with the words, VOTE NO! The board members found the company did this because food quality had become a top employee concern, and it wanted to show that the food would improve if the casinos stayed non-union.

Employees had dined on steaks at the free employee buffet before, but only on special occasions like a casino anniversary, according to case testimony. And the steaks had never been branded.

They also ordered Station Casinos to remove photos of workers from an anti-union website the company created, and to reinstate, with backpay, a union supporter who had been fired.