Jun. 21--WASHINGTON -- A Culinary Local 226 organizer told a Senate panel Thursday he was beaten and then fired from his job as a waiter at Santa Fe in 1996 after he tried to form a union there. 

The charges by Mario Vidales were disputed after the hearing by Paul Lowden, whose family controlled the company that owned Santa Fe when Vidales worked there. 

Vidales told the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that the National Labor Relations Board issued settlement checks for unfair labor practices at Santa Fe in the summer of 2001. 

But by that time, Vidales said, Station Casinos had bought Santa Fe and many of the workers who formed a union in 1993 had been fired or moved on to other jobs. 

Vidales was one of several witnesses, including AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who told the Senate panel that companies are aggressively interfering with the rights of workers to organize unions. 

Vidales said Santa Fe workers voted in October 1993 to form a union, but the company contested the election. When the National Labor Relations Board rejected the company's objection, Santa Fe pursued appeals in federal court. 

"The employer essentially laughed at the federal government and the federal government was powerless to enforce our rights. Our rights as workers counted for nothing," Vidales said. 

Vidales also told the committee he was assaulted late one night in 1996 because of his organizing activity. Ten men wielding tire irons and baseball bats beat him in the parking lot of Santa Fe, Vidales said. 

"They split my head open and inflicted serious injuries on my entire body and the swelling lasted for weeks. I couldn't work for two months," Vidales said. 

Shortly after returning to his job, he was fired for missing too much work, Vidales said. Although he did not mention his current job during the hearing, Vidales said in an interview afterward that he has worked as an organizer for Culinary Local 226 since leaving Santa Fe Station. 

In a phone interview from Las Vegas, Lowden said Vidales was never assaulted. 

"If this charge were true, someone would have filed charges. There were no charges," said Lowden, who is president of Arcon, a Las Vegas investment company. 

Lowden also disputed Vidales' claim that Santa Fe management continually resisted efforts of worker to form a union. 

"Nevada is a right to work state, and anyone can form a union," Lowden said. 

Earlier in the hearing Dan Yager, senior vice president and general counsel of the pro-management Labor Policy Association, said the most serious problem in union organizing is the erosion of employee choice through card check agreements. 

Under card checks, union representatives ask employees to sign a list showing their support for the union. A third party verifies the list to certify that the union represents the company's employees. 

Yager cited the example of the MGM Grand, which recognized the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union in November 1996. 

"The hotel's recognition of the union was not well-received by the employees," Yager said. "Many believed that their co-employees had been coerced into signing the cards, including threats of being fired or deported." 

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., asked Yager if employers must agree to card checks before they are used to approve a union. 

When Yager said yes, Kennedy responded, "Well, I don't know what your problem is then." 

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