Culinary’s financial disclosures attacked

Brian Seals

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 1998 | 10:53 a.m.

An anti-union group is questioning the finances of the Las Vegas Culinary Union, accusing it of paying high salaries to officers at the same time it's deeply in debt.

The Culinary, which represents Strip casino workers, counters it's a good union and has done nothing wrong.

Nevadans for the Right to Work (NRTW) is contacting local media to draw attention to the annual financial disclosures filed by Las Vegas' largest union. The group promotes the fact that in Nevada, workers can't be required to join a union.

"I think people in Las Vegas need to know, considering it's a major union here," said Bruce Esgar of NRTW.

His group questioned a series of items on the disclosures:

* A $4.7 million fee paid to the International Union. The NRTW says that represents workers' dues, about one-fourth of all dues collected, going out of the state. But Jim Arnold of the union said most of the fee is a per-member charge mandated by the Hotel Employee Restaurant Employee International (Culinary) Union's by-laws. This money also goes to the AFL-CIO, Local Joint Board and the Central Labor Council.

* The report shows a discrepancy on initiation fees. One section shows the union does not charge initiation fees, but the same report shows $370,000 was collected in fees. The union says that money represents application and reinstatement fees.

* The union shows membership at 35,855 by the end of 1997. When monthly dues are calculated at $32.50 a month per member, it doesn't add up to the $12.6 million in dues collected for 1997. Arnold said membership increased throughout the year, so varying numbers of members were paying dues in any given month.

* The union's report shows it's $1.2 million in the red. Arnold said the debt stems from a $5 million loan it received from the international union during the six-plus-year Frontier strike.

Also, the right to work group questioned what it considered high salaries of union management. Arnold's salary is $72,641 while union President Hattie Canty's is $58,963.

"Their salaries are double what I make, in some cases four times what I make," said Lloyd Wells of the anti-union group. "The people running the union are making a lot more than the people in the union."

Wells said union members should question what they are getting for their money.

Arnold, secretary-treasurer of the local union, answered: "The best wages and conditions in the country."

The union charges the group is trying "to get cheap press."

Arnold said his salary is far less than what hotel general managers make. He said he and and the union staff get the same raises rank and file members get. Moreover, he said all expenditures are approved by the union's executive board and membership.

In most any company CEOs are paid better than workers, and Esgar said that is part of the point his group is trying to make.

"They claim it is a union. We claim it is a business enterprise," Esgar said.

That's the kind of claim the right to work group has been making since its inception in late March. The group was formed to educate workers on their right not to join a union and is backed by the Nevada Association of Independent Business.

Arnold said the right to work group is not interested in protecting workers, but is trying to hurt the union.

"If right to work thinks something is wrong with our finances, why don't they go to the government instead of going to the press?" Arnold asked.

"Right to work is trying to raise non-existent questions to weaken the hotel workers' strong union. People like (Venetian developer) Sheldon Adelson and right to work don't want a strong union. They want everyone to be 'at will' -- meaning at the employer's mercy."

NAIB executive director Phil Stout said Friday that several casinos are among NAIB members and acknowledged the group receives support from Adelson, who's in a dispute with the Culinary over representation of workers at his resort under construction on the Strip.

Arnold said the union has its finances examined by an outside auditor, the International Union's auditor, as well as the U.S. Labor Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

He added that federal auditor examined the union last year.

"Nobody's checked out as much as we are," Arnold said.