Columnist Jeff German: Culinary Union looks to contract talks with LV casinos

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1998 | 10:19 a.m.

WITH the historic Frontier strike behind it, the Culinary Union has turned its attention to signing contracts with 39 other Las Vegas casinos.

"That's our No. 1 priority," Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Jim Arnold says. "We've got to get these contracts buttoned down for the members we represent. We owe it to them."

Talks have been moving at a snail's pace the past seven months since the old three-year contracts expired at the end of June.

The 40,000-member union has held demonstrations on the Strip twice since then to protest the slowed negotiations.

Discussions were to resume today with Hilton Hotels Corp., which owns the Las Vegas Hilton, Flamingo Hilton and Bally's.

Arnold says the union and most of the major Strip resorts are in agreement on the health and pension benefits being sought.

Most casinos, he says, also are willing to agree to a longer five-year contract this time around.

The main sticking point, according to Arnold, is over pay raises.

For the most part, the casinos have been willing to grant union members a 25-cent-an-hour hike each year. The union wants more than that.

"We're going to have some major fights on this one," Arnold concedes. "But we're going to fight as long as it takes."

Arnold says the union has no timetable for completing negotiations with the casinos.

But he adds: "We're going to have to start squeezing them. The members can't go on forever without a collective bargaining agreement."

The end of the Frontier strike and last November's agreement with the MGM Grand have inspired the union to come to terms with the rest of the casinos.

The MGM, like the Frontier, pursued an anti-labor policy its first couple of years in operation. But after a change of management at the top two years ago, it became union friendly.

Most of the other hotels had been waiting to see the MGM contract before signing their own.

That deal, however, was signed without addressing the pay issue. The MGM agreed to abide by whatever the rest of the industry accepted.

On Thursday, the Culinary Union will face another significant event, when its members converge on the Thomas & Mack Center to decide whether to continue a $7-a-month dues hike imposed eight years ago in anticipation of the Frontier strike.

The union wants the hike, which raised monthly dues to $32, to remain in effect so that it can use the money on future organizing drives and labor disputes.

"We want to have enough money to continue the fight," Arnold says. "We need a level playing field."

In the meantime, it's contract time again, and the Culinary heads into the talks with renewed confidence.

Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren was one of the few Republican elected officials on hand early Sunday for the union celebration inside the New Frontier with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Hammargren showed up wearing a Jesse Jackson for president tie.

Introducing himself to the civil rights leader, Hammargren said he was contemplating running for governor in the Republican primary.

The quick-witted Jackson, a Democrat, promptly put his hand on Hammargren's forehead and said "healed."