Ruffin on verge of New Frontier

Monday, Jan. 12, 1998 | 10:05 a.m.

Putting a six-year strike behind it, the Frontier hotel-casino will get a new name when Kansas industrialist Phil Ruffin takes over at the end of the month.

The embattled Strip resort, Ruffin said, will be called the New Frontier under his leadership.

Ruffin, who bought the Strip resort for $165 million in late October, goes before the state Gaming Control Board Wednesday to obtain his license.

He's expected to win quick approval in the wake of an expedited background investigation.

"They tell me I'm clean as a hound's tooth," Ruffin said. "This thing is going to work out for us."

Ruffin hopes to win final approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission next week and then take control of the New Frontier Feb. 1. The resort will open with a union contract.

The Culinary Union, which has been on strike since Sept. 21, 1991, will remove its picket line at midnight Jan. 31 and march into the hotel with much fanfare.

Labor leaders and dignitaries from around the country, many of whom walked the picket line the past six years, are being invited to a massive block party outside the Frontier before the line is taken down.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, the nation's No. 2 labor boss, will be among those addressing the union members at the party, which will get under way at 9 p.m.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a strong supporter of the strikers over the years, also tentatively has committed to attending the celebration.

In a letter inviting the labor leaders, international Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer John Wilhelm said "the strike could never have been won without the steadfast support of the American labor movement."

Last February, after the SUN printed allegations the Elardi family had spied and played dirty tricks on the strikers, the AFL-CIO's executive council condemned the Frontier owners and pushed to exert national pressure on them.

Local Culinary Union leaders confirmed this week that they spent $26 million on the strike, the nation's longest.

Much of that money, according to Secretary-Treasurer Jim Arnold, went toward strike pay and benefits. Strikers each received $200 a week for manning the picket line 24 hours a day.

Arnold called the strike the "highlight" of his involvement in organized labor.

"There's no doubt in my mind that this will go down as one of the biggest things that has happened to the labor movement in 50 years," he said.

"We predicted this would be a long, rough strike, and we guaranteed them we would stand by them for as long as it took. And we kept our word. And they kept their word by sticking it out."

Arnold said he was most proud of the fact that none of the 550 strikers crossed the picket line during the epic labor battle.

Over the years, 107 babies were born to mothers walking the line and 17 of the strikers died, Arnold said.

About 200-300 strikers plan to go back to work at the New Frontier, and Ruffin said he will make room for any who want to return.

Ruffin said he has agreed to pay the union $3.5 million in back pay and benefits for the strikers.

Outgoing Frontier owner Margaret Elardi is picking up half of that tab, he said.

Ruffin, who owns a dozen Marriott hotels, said he's sending a transition team to the Frontier to organize his takeover.

"It's going to be a challenge," he said. "I think we're going to make a large success out of it."

Ruffin has pledged to pump at least $20 million into remodeling the embattled resort.

"We're going to upgrade the place," he said. "We'll do whatever we have to do."

If all goes well, Ruffin said, the resort will close for about 14 hours Jan. 31, so that the Elardi family can take its money out and he can replace it with his. The Control Board will oversee the transition.

Ruffin's background investigation, which normally would have taken six months to a year, was completed in only two months.

The Control Board had three agents working on the inquiry, two of them full-time.

The hiring of longtime Las Vegas gaming executive Darrel Luery to run the New Frontier simplified the investigation, sources said. Luery already has a gaming license.

Ruffin's industrial and hotel empire, which has 5,000 employees, is based in Wichita, Kan.

This is not the first time he'll be entering the gaming industry. His Marriott in the Bahamas has a casino.

archive