🗞️ MGM Springfield Ordered to Bargain with Casino Dealers After Yearlong Standoff

When roughly 247 table games dealers, poker dealers, and poker attendants at MGM Springfield voted 130 to 117 to join the New England Joint Board, UNITE HERE in March 2024, the outcome appeared to set the stage for a straightforward labor negotiation at the state's first resort casino. It would take more than two years before that process could formally begin.

The National Labor Relations Board certified UNITE HERE as the exclusive bargaining representative for the unit on September 23, 2024. Days later, the union sent a written request for negotiations. MGM Springfield, operated by Blue Tarp reDevelopment, LLC, declined. The casino contested the validity of the certification, argued the election results should be overturned, and raised a series of procedural objections, including a claim that the NLRB lacked a proper quorum when the complaint was issued and that certain allegations were time-barred under federal labor law.

None of those arguments found traction with the Board. When the General Counsel moved for summary judgment in February 2026, MGM Springfield did not respond. On April 1, 2026, a three-member panel comprising Chairman James R. Murphy and Members David M. Prouty and Scott A. Mayer ruled unanimously in the union's favor, finding that the employer had raised no representation issues that hadn't already been resolved, or that could have been raised, in the underlying election proceeding. The Board dismissed each of the employer's defenses as legally unsupported.

The ruling orders MGM Springfield to begin bargaining in good faith upon request, to post notices informing employees of their rights for 60 consecutive days, and to file a sworn compliance certification with the Regional Director within 21 days. In a consequence that extends the union's formal protections, the Board also reset the one-year certification clock to begin only when the employer actually commences good-faith bargaining, a standard established under longstanding NLRB precedent.

The decision arrives against a broader backdrop of labor activity at the Springfield casino. UNITE HERE has represented hundreds of other MGM Springfield workers, including servers, bartenders, housekeepers, and other hospitality staff, under a separate collective bargaining agreement that dates to 2019. The dealers' unit had not previously been covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

Key Points

• Dealers voted 130 to 117 to unionize in March 2024 in a secret ballot election covering roughly 282 eligible employees.
• The NLRB Regional Director certified UNITE HERE as exclusive bargaining representative on September 23, 2024.
• MGM Springfield declined to bargain beginning October 1, 2024, challenging the certification's validity.
• The employer's procedural defenses, including claims of an NLRB quorum deficiency and a Section 10(b) time-bar, were rejected as unsupported.
• The Board granted summary judgment on April 1, 2026, finding violations of Section 8(a)(5) and (1) of the National Labor Relations Act.
• The employer was ordered to bargain, post employee notices for 60 days, and file a compliance certification within 21 days.
• The one-year certification period will begin only when the employer commences good-faith bargaining, per Mar-Jac Poultry Co., 136 NLRB 785 (1962).
• UNITE HERE already represented hundreds of other MGM Springfield workers, including servers, bartenders, and housekeepers, under a separate agreement in place since 2019.

Primary Source Author: Chairman James R. Murphy and Members David M. Prouty and Scott A. Mayer, National Labor Relations Board

Primary Source: Blue Tarp reDevelopment, LLC d/b/a MGM Springfield, 374 NLRB No. 84 (April 1, 2026)

Primary Source Link: NLRB Case 01-CA-356311

Supplemental Links

• NLRB Representation Case 01-RC-335489, Election Record
• MGM Dealers Vote to Join UNITE HERE, Western Mass Politics & Insight
• Pre-Election Coverage: MGM Poker & Table Game Employees, Western Mass Politics & Insight
• NLRB Edge: April 2, 2026 Decision Roundup
• WNY Labor Today: MGM Springfield Dealers Go Union