Union, MGM Mirage open talks

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Five weeks after Culinary Workers Local 226 called for early negotiations with hotel owners to discuss the expiring collective bargaining agreements covering Strip and downtown workers, the first face-to-face session took place Wednesday.

The contracts with 50,000 hotel and restaurant service employees, such as bartenders, cocktail servers, waiters, housekeepers and maids, are set to expire June 1.

"We view these initial talks as exploring where we need to go and what issues are we facing," Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor said Wednesday before the union's first session with executives representing nine MGM Mirage Strip casinos. "Las Vegas is a much different landscape than what it was five years ago. With the industry's tremendous amount of prosperity, I want to see who wants to include the workers and who wants to leave them out."

MGM Mirage Senior Vice President of Human Resources Cynthia Kiser Murphy wrote to union leaders in February with an overall philosophy on talks.

"We have made a longstanding mutual commitment to the quality of jobs and opportunities for our people now and in the future," Murphy said in her letter. "That future has never been brighter than it is today."

Taylor said the union has also scheduled a negotiating session on April 4 with representatives of casinos owned by Harrah's Entertainment.

Taylor said the central purpose of its talks with the hotel-casino industry center on securing a standard of living for workers that takes into account rising costs in Las Vegas.

"Clearly, Las Vegas is at a crossroads, and these contract negotiations have implications for the entire community," Taylor said. "We need to support making Las Vegas a place where workers and their families in the hospitality industry can achieve a better standard of living."

When the union and the company agreed on a five-year contract in 2002, MGM Mirage controlled four Strip casinos. Two years ago, the company added five Strip properties in a $7.9 billion buyout of Mandalay Resort Group.

Taylor said that deal, along with Harrah's $9 billion purchase of Caesars Entertainment in 2005, eliminated another gaming company from the negotiating picture. Harrah's is now the bargaining group for seven Strip casinos.

Meanwhile, ownership of the Las Vegas Hilton and the Tropicana has changed since 2004, as has the ownership of several downtown casinos.

Taylor said the companies seem to want to get negotiations under way quickly. And MGM Mirage, in a statement, said it has maintained a professional and businesslike relationship with the union.

"Throughout the past several years, MGM Mirage and the Culinary union have forged a partnership which has created the ability of both parties to achieve great success," said the statement e-mailed by the company's public affairs division. "MGM Mirage is committed to the process of fair and reasoned bargaining and we hope to achieve an amicable agreement very quickly."

The company noted that 21,000 of its workers are covered by the Culinary contracts. MGM Mirage officials said the company has worked with the union over the past five years to implement various worker training programs.

Union leaders said the organization is still determining what sort of contract length it will seek, as well as cost-of-living increases and health and welfare benefits. In 2005, the Culinary signed a 10-year contract with Wynn Las Vegas that has cost-of-living increases built into the deal.

The Culinary wants to avoid the troubles that befell the Atlantic City Culinary local in 2004, when more than 10,000 workers walked out in a monthlong strike against seven Atlantic City casinos. The dispute involved wages and the length of the contract.

Taylor said the union's full negotiating committee of about 400 MGM Mirage employees would take part in the sessions.