Columnist Jeff German: Labor turns up the heat on gaming

Saturday, Feb. 22, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

AMERICA'S labor movement is on the warpath, and the strike-ridden Frontier and Nevada's casino industry could wind up big losers.

The AFL-CIO's six-pronged national campaign against the Frontier, unveiled in Los Angeles last week, has the potential to cause great embarrassment to the casino industry and its respected regulatory system as the Federal Gambling Impact Study gets underway.

In many ways, the industry has no one to blame but itself for the predicament the Frontier has put it in.

The nation's top labor leaders already are starting to question whether state gaming regulators have done all they could to discipline the Strip resort, as evidence of wrongdoing during the strike has mounted.

"We wonder aloud how in fact this kind of conduct can continue in America for 5 1/2 years in a regulated industry," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told reporters in Los Angeles last week.

Over the years, the Frontier, which denies wrongdoing, has been accused of violating numerous federal and state labor laws during the strike.

Recent revelations in the SUN, alleging the Frontier conducted illegal wiretapping, spied and played dirty tricks on strikers, instructed employees to lie in court proceedings and fabricated evidence presented to state agencies have served to rally the AFL-CIO into making the epic labor dispute a national cause.

Trumka and his boss, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, are determined to put the full weight of their 13-million-member organization behind the national Frontier initiative.

Last week, they announced they would be forming a special committee of labor and civic leaders to hold hearings in Washington, D.C., on the Frontier's alleged misconduct.

No one could remember the last time such hearings were held.

The AFL-CIO plans to conduct a massive national media blitz that will focus attention on what Sweeney called in Las Vegas recently "one of the biggest corporate criminals in history."

Labor bosses also expect to step up pressure on Gov. Bob Miller, state lawmakers, the Nevada congressional delegation, state gaming regulators and the Clark County Commission to move against the Frontier.

Other congressional members and Clinton administration officials will be contacted as well.

One key House member, Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., pledged in Los Angeles to open doors on Capitol Hill for the striking Culinary Union members when they come to state their case.

Gephardt, a likely Democratic presidential contender in 2000, has long been courting labor.

Earlier this month, he named John Wilhelm, secretary-treasurer of the international Culinary Union, to the nine-member federal commission that will study the casino industry.

Wilhelm's appointment has become very important to labor's strategy against the Frontier.

The AFL-CIO plans to present the findings of its hearings in Washington to the federal gaming panel in what likely will attract unwanted, high-profile media coverage of the casino industry.

Wilhelm, one of the rising stars in the labor movement, is a friend of the industry. But he has made no secret that his first allegiance is to the working man and woman.

When he was appointed earlier this month, he said he knew the good and bad sides of the industry and was in nobody's pocket.

Wilhelm, set to begin new contract talks with more than 30 Las Vegas casinos, is on record as calling the Frontier one of the bad sides.

And now that the AFL-CIO has made the Frontier Public Enemy No. 1, you can expect Wilhelm to take hold of the Frontier cause like a bulldog when the federal commission begins its work.

The industry probably never expected this development when it backed Wilhelm's appointment.

Another person to watch as the Frontier drama unfolds in Washington is State Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible, who's expected to be named to the federal commission soon by President Clinton.

Bible is spearheading the Control Board's investigation of the Frontier. He was the first lawman to raise concerns about the conduct of the hotel-casino.

But labor believes the Control Board under Bible's leadership has not pursued sanctions against the Frontier as vigorously as it could have. And worse, there's evidence to suggest it let the Frontier off the hook in the past when allegations of misconduct arose.

The board's performance probably will be scrutinized during the AFL-CIO hearings and show up in findings that ironically will be presented to the very federal commission Bible is likely to sit on.

How's that for pressure?

Indeed, the pressure on Bible and Nevada's regulatory process in the coming weeks could be enormous.

Bible's job of finding enough evidence to take away the Frontier's license won't be easy.

Though there are plenty of witnesses, the Frontier has hired a battery of lawyers who have given fits to the Control Board in past investigations.

But most figure Bible will come through in the end.

As the AFL-CIO steps up its Frontier campaign, Bible and Wilhelm won't be the only ones to watch.

Gov. Miller, who has not hidden his dislike of the Frontier's way of doing business, will be on the hot seat, as well.

Miller, now a national figure as president of the National Governors Association, has tried his best to end the strike.

And though he has spoken out loud and clear over the years, his leadership has been lacking amid the latest round of allegations that have hit the Frontier. Miller was silent last week after the AFL-CIO launched its opening round against the Frontier.

Just how the casino industry handles the Frontier issue will be especially interesting to watch.

The American Gaming Association, the industry's Washington lobby, has refused to take a stand against the Frontier, even though most know that what has happened there is atypical of the casino business.

Last week, after being told of the AFL-CIO's national Frontier initiative, AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf for the first time in more than two months addressed the matter.

"Certainly, anything that is embarrassing to the industry is not a healthy thing," he said.

But Fahrenkopf was reluctant to address the latest allegations against the Frontier until he consults with his executive board members.

The AGA's board meets in Las Vegas this week, which to many seems a perfect time for a frank discussion of the Frontier.

The industry needs to distance itself from the Frontier, as labor intensifies its Frontier assault in the coming weeks.

Gaming's detractors in Washington are itching for a controversy like this to show the nation once and for all that they're right about the evils of gambling.

With America's labor movement on the warpath, things could get ugly for the casino industry if the powers that be in Nevada remain quiet much longer.

Joe Daugherty, the Culinary Union's strike coordinator, may have summed it up best in Los Angeles last week.

"We're heading down that road where people in Nevada are going to have to make some tough decisions about dealing with the Frontier," he said.

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