LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Last Friday afternoon, Station Casinos, an anti-union casino company, complained to Twitter about the Twitter account @workerstation, whose profile stated: “Updates by Culinary Union Local 226 on the organizing campaign by workers at @stationcasinos in Las Vegas, NV.” The company claimed @workerstation infringed on the company’s trademark “Station Casinos.” The tweets by @workerstation have focused on educating the public and enlisting support for the on-going campaign by over 5,000 workers at Station Casinos to exercise their legal right to join unions in the face of the Las Vegas casino company’s unprecedented anti-union campaign.
After ignoring the response by the union’s attorney sent on Friday, Twitter temporarily suspended @workerstation on Monday afternoon after it “received another report from the trademark holder that your account, @workerstation, is still using a trademark in a way that could be confusing or misleading with regard to brand or business affiliation.”
The union sent another response to the temporary suspension notice immediately, and a letter was sent to Twitter’s legal department on Tuesday morning. At 12:38 p.m. on Tuesday, Twitter restored the @workerstation account. So far, Twitter has not responded to the argument by the union’s legal counsel that @workerstation has not violated any trademark law, especially considering well-established legal precedents on critical fair use of trademarks.
“We are happy that Twitter has not succumbed to anti-union corporate special interests and has not given in to Station Casinos’ unreasonable demands,” said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, President of the Culinary Local 226. “We believe it is—and was—absolutely crystal clear to any reasonable person that @workerstation is not affiliated with, supported by, or paid for by Station Casinos.”
“At the same time,” continued Arguello-Kline, “we urge Station Casinos to finally begin to respect its employees’ right to decide for themselves, freely and without management interference or intimidation, whether they want to join our union.”
For more information on the on-going organizing campaign at Station Casinos, please follow @workerstation on Twitter, like the campaign’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/WorkerStation), or sign up for updates from www.WorkerStation.org.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 is the largest union in Nevada and an affiliate of UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers’ union in North America.