Culinary sets Strip protest

Dave W. Crowell

Thursday, Jan. 29, 1998 | 9:13 a.m.

A three-hour rally and a return to the negotiating table were on tap today as Culinary workers and the Frontier Hotel-Casino seek to revive talks that have been stalled for more than a year.

The contract talks, slated to start at 2 p.m., are the first between the union and the resort's management since February 1990.

At 4 p.m., union members will put up an informational picket line in front of the Strip hotel. About 2,000 members of the International Association of Bridge, Structural and Iron Workers Union, who are attending a convention in Las Vegas, will join the hotel employees.

At 6 p.m., 1,500 members of the California School Employees Union, will join the picket line. They, too, are holding a convention in Las Vegas.

The Frontier's 680 Culinary workers have been without a contract since 1989.

Negotiations had broken down after the hotel's management put what was called its last offer on the table and then implemented the proposal without the union's agreement.

Jim Arnold, the secretary-treasurer of Culinary Local 226, was not optimistic about today's scheduled talks.

Hotel management declined to discuss the matter.

Arnold said he would rather get a contract with the hotel owned by Margaret Elardi than have the union's members walk a picket line.

"If something doesn't happen there's going to be a full-blown strike," he said.