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Unions and Casinos Talk

LAS VEGAS – Sept. 16, 2001 --Casino operators may push for a temporary agreement this week that would allow them to ask many of their unionized employees to leave work early if business is slow on any given day.

The move would come in response to a dramatic reduction in business following Tuesday's terror attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., and would currently violate contracts negotiated by the industry with the 45,000-member Culinary Local 226.

The five-year agreements require full eight-hour shifts for such non-tip earners as cooks and housekeepers who are scheduled for work.

Tip earners, including cocktail waitresses, are scheduled for four-, six- and eight-hour shifts, and can be sent home early on slow days.

Without the temporary agreement, some casino bosses believe they could be forced to layoff workers if the nation's travel prospects fail to improve in the coming weeks.

"We obviously are hopeful this is a short-term situation that we recover from," MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said.

Culinary official D. Taylor said Sunday afternoon the union had not received a formal proposal requesting the change but noted that the union will not alter the contracts.

He quickly added it would be wrong to portray the issue in an "adversarial way," a sentiment that was echoed by Feldman.

"This is a pretty unique time right now. We are not being obstinate," Taylor added, noting that his union's parent organization, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, lost 70 members in the World Trade Center collapse. "We'll figure out a solution that works."

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