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Union's Potential Strike Motivation Questioned

LAS VEGAS - The political and financial needs of Culinary Local 226 may help explain the 45,000-member union's push for a possible work stoppage at Las Vegas-area hotel-casinos, a top Las Vegas gaming executive said Friday.

The dispute could lead to the casino industry's first citywide strike in 18 years, reversing a lengthy period of relatively friendly relations between labor and management.

Union members are scheduled for a May 16 strike authorization vote, which would precede the scheduled May 31 expiration of union contracts at 35 area hotel-casinos.

"The fact that they've started with ultimatums rather than negotiations is very surprising," said Mandalay Resort Group Senior Vice President Mike Sloan.

"This is inconsistent with our prior history. What tends to get overlooked in the collective bargaining process is the union is in business to make money."

Sloan's comments were delivered three days after Culinary leaders sent a mailer to 4,000 potential members who are qualified to join the union but have failed to sign up.

Union leaders argue in the Tuesday letter that the additional members - who would each pay $32.50 in monthly dues for a maximum of $1.56 million - are needed for the union to show strength in its contract talks.

law allows qualified workers to receive union benefits without paying dues.

"It's essentially like being on welfare or not paying your taxes or whatever analogy you want to make for people getting a free ride," said Culinary political director Glenn Arnodo.

A key issue for organizers: the protection of union health-care benefits. Gaming companies with Culinary contracts currently pay the full cost of health-care premiums.

"It is essential that your company sees that the union is strong and that the members are united around protecting our free health benefits," read the letter. "You can do this by joining the union today. Every workers who isn't a member weakens the union and puts our health benefits in jeopardy."

Union representatives have met in recent weeks with executives of Strip giants MGM Mirage, Park Place Entertainment and Mandalay Resort Group to discuss contract issues.

In addition to health insurance concerns, they are pushing for wage increases in the second year of a two-year contract and improved working conditions, especially for an estimated 9,000 housekeepers, who union officials say have experienced a dramatic workload increase in recent years.

Earlier this week, union leaders sent warnings of a possible strike to 50,000 travel agents throughout the country. That could prompt Las Vegas marketers to consider plans to prevent a decline in travel to the desert city.

Key Strip executives privately say that several factors may have contributed to Culinary's strike talk, including:

- The push by some gaming companies to have union members foot a portion of their health insurance costs. One Strip executive believes Culinary membership could decline if members are forced to choose between paying union dues or a monthly insurance premium of $100 to $200.

- The criticism of Culinary leaders last fall by some senior members because of a union plan that asked them to sacrifice one workday a week so newly laid off workers could return to part-time work in the aftermath of post-Sept. 11 job cuts. Industry executives believe the strike talk has become a powerful organizing tool to close that rift.

- The much-talked-about aspirations of John Wilhelm, who heads the Culinary's parent union, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, and is often mentioned as a potential successor to AFL-CIO boss John Sweeney. Some casino bosses believe Wilhelm could be positioning for a fight to show that his local chapter has teeth in its dealings with Las Vegas casino bosses.

Culinary staff director D. Taylor rejected such talk as little more than a fallacious tale, especially for the Strip's largest casino companies, which have seen their publicly traded stocks dramatically rebound from September lows.

"I think that rather than dealing with the issues of health care and workload they want to try to not focus on the issues at hand," Taylor said. "There is no defense when their stock is at an all-time high."

SIDEBAR:

Culinary staff director D. Taylor said he was "extremely disappointed" by MGM Mirage Senior Vice President Alan Feldman's characterization of a recent union mailing to 50,000 travel agents.

The letter was sent earlier this week to warn travel agents and their customers of a possible strike at 35 area hotels.

"It's unfortunate that the Culinary, having just experienced the effects of a horrible terrorist attack on our country, would themselves terrorize the Las Vegas economy," Feldman said in a Friday Review-Journal story.

Taylor said: "After 9-11 the use of the word (terrorize) like that is quite offensive. I'm just very disappointed and think it's highly inappropriate."

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