Thursday, April 23, 1998 | 10:24 a.m.
A narrow 17-15 victory for the Teamsters Local 995 with valets at New York-New York hotel-casino is the first significant victory in an ongoing organizing effort, Teamster organizer Rob Rovere said Wednesday.
Valets voted to be represented by the union Wednesday. A vote is scheduled May 7 for 15 warehouse receivers at the hotel-casino and a May 14 vote will follow at the MGM Grand for about 67 parking valets.
Also, the union has petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for elections for warehouse workers and valets at the Stratosphere and for mailroom workers at Caesars Palace, Rovere said.
Despite Wednesday's narrow margin, union officials were pleased.
"We knew because of all the money paid to the union buster, it was going to be very close," Rovere said. "It shows despite union busting and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lies, the truth can still win out."
New York-New York had hired Carlos Restrepo to combat the organization effort, Rovere said.
Attempts to get comment from New York-New York management failed. Earlier this month, New York-New York vice president for human resources Dennis Shipley would neither confirm or deny Restrepo was hired by the hotel-casino, but said management was meeting with employees to ensure they made an informed vote.
With union backing, the valets get union representation in case of termination and Teamster benefits. Rovere said it would be up to Teamster secretary-treasurer Mike Magnani to call for contract negotiations.
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