Adelson invites ex-Sands workers to apply at Venetian

John Wilen

Friday, Dec. 18, 1998 | 12:03 p.m.

The Venetian hotel-casino appears to be making a concession to long-standing union demands that the resort give hiring preferences to former Sands hotel-casino employees.

On Monday, the Venetian's human resources department sent former Sands employees a letter notifying them of special interview days and a special job line set aside for their use.

The resort is to open in April. It must hire more than 8,000 employees during a tight labor market in which qualified hotel-casino workers also are being wooed by Mandalay Bay and Paris, two other Strip resorts under construction.

"The Venetian would like to extend an invitation to you to visit our Employment Center on specific days set aside for ex-Sands employees," reads the letter. After providing the phone number and other details, the letter continues: "You will need to bring this letter with you to our Employment Center in order to complete an application and interview with a member of our staff."

Recipients were directed to call a special number to schedule an interview on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

But Bill Weidner, president and chief operating officer of Las Vegas Sands Inc., said the letter is not a concession to the Culinary Union.

"We were always planning on inviting the Sands employees to apply at the Venetian," said Weidner. "We're not going to respond to their demands."

The Sands was closed and razed in 1996 by owner Sheldon Adelson, who is now developing the $1.2 billion Venetian mega-resort in its place.

The closure drew lawsuits from former Sands employees, who claim they were not given a legally required 60-day notice of termination. But it also drew loud criticism from the Culinary Union, which had represented more than 500 Sands workers.

Adelson has refused to negotiate a union agreement with Culinary. His stance has led to two years of acrimonious battle between the billionaire and the union.

Union activists have picketed the Venetian construction site, bombarded the resort's preview center with loud music and amplified chanting and tried to warn potential retailers and lenders away. Throughout the campaign, union officials have repeatedly called for the Venetian to give hiring preference to former Sands employees.

Other gaming companies, including Circus Circus and Mirage Resorts, have given hiring preference to employees of former casinos razed to make room for their new mega-resorts.

It is unclear whether the letter is an olive branch or a savvy public relations move intended to diffuse one of the union's most resounding arguments.

Weidner denied the olive branch motive.

"We simply see this as a way to recognize those Sands employees," said Weidner.

Since setting up a Venetian hiring center and phone line, interviewers have been swamped with 50,000 calls, he said. The special phone line and interview days are an attempt to give Sands employees preferential interview slots, said Weidner. But they will still have to interview well and meet the Venetian's high standards, he said.

"No guarantees, but preferential treatment," said Weidner. "Interview preference and certainly, if they have a good work record, hiring preference."

However, Weidner said, "It is not a commitment to them that they have a job."

Former Sands workers have always figured largely in Adelson's plans, said Weidner. In fact, he said, Adelson closed the Sands early, at a cost of extra millions of dollars, so that its workers would have a crack at jobs at the then-hiring Monte Carlo, New York-New York and Stratosphere hotel-casinos.

"If we closed the Sands when it was best economically ... Sheldon's concern ... was that if we closed when it was best to close that these people wouldn't have jobs," said Weidner. "So we closed early."

Thomas Snyder, a Culinary Union organizer in charge of the Venetian campaign, hailed the letter as a move in the right direction.

"It's a first step toward our position that the Venetian owes Sands workers their jobs back," said Snyder. "It seems clear that they recognized, at a minimum, that they had a public relations failure."

It is also clear that the letter itself does not settle the battle between Adelson and the Culinary Union. Adelson appears committed to opening the Venetian as a non-union resort, and the union appears equally committed to opposing that plan every step of the way.

"The property is opening in a way that allows the employees to make that choice (whether to join a union)," said Weidner.

Snyder declined to comment on what future steps the union might take in its Venetian campaign.

"I'm not going to comment about our future plans," said Snyder.

But most observers predict a protracted union campaign against the Venetian, including pickets, rallies and continued pressure on retailers and restauranteurs that sign leases with the property.

The union has a track record of successful unionization campaigns against recalcitrant resorts. A 2 1/2-year campaign against the MGM Grand hotel-casino resulted in that resort's unionization. And, most famously, a six-year strike against the non-union Frontier hotel-casino resulted in that resort's sale to a new owner, Phil Ruffin, who changed its name to the New Frontier and agreed to unionize.

The union is currently involved in a dispute with the Santa Fe hotel-casino over that resort's refusal to honor a vote five years ago in which union officials claim employees approved a union. Santa Fe officials dispute the legality of the vote.

The Culinary Union has made its position on the Venetian clear: allowing such a major megaresort to operate non-union would threaten the union's grip on other major resorts in town. And the union will fight long and hard to prevent that from happening.