Editorial: Frontier strike end a relief

Thursday, Oct. 30, 1997 | 9:35 a.m.

IT'S over. Well, almost.

The nation's longest-running strike -- six years -- is set to end when a Kansas industrialist and hotelier, Phil Ruffin, takes over the Frontier Hotel, which he purchased from the Elardi family.

The strike settlement is long overdue.

Ruffin agreed to sign a Culinary Union contract and hire back the 550 Frontier workers who walked off their jobs Sept. 21, 1991. He wants to start off with a clean slate and resolve any and all disputes.

Does anyone remember what the original labor dispute was about?

The Frontier workers who walked the picket line for six years surely can't forget.

There was no contract, and the Frontier had cut off workers' pension contributions, and had imposed new work rules and wages. The Frontier also had tried to spy on union members before the start of the strike.

Despite National Labor Relations Board rulings against the Frontier, actions by the international Culinary Union, calls from elected local and state officials and the creation of a national AFL-CIO committee to investigate the strike, the Elardi family turned a deaf ear and refused to budge.

They fought the union every step of the way. While the Frontier's neighboring properties were booming and expanding, the strike-plagued resort stood still.

The only recourse was to sell the Strip property.

The new owner has said he wants to deal in good faith and has worked out an agreement with the Culinary Union.

It's been an ugly fight. There have been charges and counter-charges of labor violations, allegations of spying and other misconduct, and the beating of a tourist by strikers who is suing the Frontier for failing to notify him and his wife of the ongoing labor dispute.

Let the Frontier serve as a lesson to all other hotel-casinos that it's better to negotiate in good faith and to work to resolve disputes than to let them fester and turn into a years-long brawl.

The effects of the strike were not only felt locally. It put Las Vegas in an undesirable national spotlight.

We don't need a repeat of that.