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Boyd Reports Progress in Union Talks

LAS VEGAS -- Boyd Gaming Corp. reported making "significant progress" during a short negotiation session with union officials Sunday.

"We made significant progress," Boyd spokesman Rob Stillwell said after his company's executives met with negotiators for the Culinary and Bartender's unions for one hour at the Stardust. Stillwell, while declining to comment further on the negotiations, said another meeting is scheduled for Friday.

Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor did not return Sunday phone messages.

Three Boyd hotel-casinos, the Stardust, Main Street Station and the Fremont, are among the 14 Las Vegas properties that have yet to sign new contracts with union maids and food-service workers before the unions' July 1 strike deadline.

The contracts would affect 6,698 union workers at the 14 gaming properties.

Industry insiders believe the Boyd negotiations may hold the key to settling most of the remaining contracts.

Union officials last week asked Boyd Chairman Bill Boyd to use his influence to persuade operators of other downtown properties to join Main Street Station and the Fremont and agree to a deal that would grant unspecified economic concessions in exchange for a five-year deal.

Stillwell declined to say after Sunday's meeting whether Boyd executives were ready to begin rallying other downtown operators around a possible compromise.

Meanwhile, company executives and union officials all agree that contract terms are close to being settled with the final two Strip properties without new deals, Boyd's Stardust and the Sahara.

In addition to Main Street Station and the Fremont, the other downtown properties still without a contract are: Fitzgeralds, Four Queens, Binion's Horseshoe, Golden Gate, Plaza, Western, El Cortez and Las Vegas Club. Jerry's Nugget in North Las Vegas and the Castaways near the Boulder Strip also lack new deals.

A Fitzgeralds executive said last week the company expects to reach a new deal and avoid a strike, but lawyer Gregg Kamer said properties he represents can't afford the terms union negotiators insist on.

Kamer represents the Four Queens, Binion's Horseshoe, Plaza, Western, El Cortez and Las Vegas Club.

Taylor said last week that if he had to bet, he'd bet that there would be a strike, citing contract proposals Kamer made that would give downtown properties the right to replace union workers with subcontracted non-union workers, reduce the duration of workers' shifts to as few as four hours, and hire unlimited numbers of part-time workers.

Additionally, Kamer's proposals would allow termination of union contracts and workers' jobs and seniority if a property is sold.

Taylor has said all of Kamer's proposals are deal killers, while Kamer said he'd drop some of what he-called cost-cutting measures if the unions offered a more realistic bottom-line contract cost.

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