Culinary voting on Frontier strike

Thursday, Jan. 29, 1998 | 9:14 a.m.

SUN STAFF REPORTS

Culinary workers at the Frontier Hotel-Casino were voting today on whether to walk off their jobs.

The union represents 680 Frontier employees who have been working without a contract since 1989.

If the workers endorse the walkout during today's secret balloting, a strike could be called as early as Friday, though Culinary Local 226 secretary-treasurer Jim Arnold would not speculate on a timetable.

The union leadership scheduled two meetings with the rank and file before today's vote.

The Frontier is owned by the Elardi family, headed by Margaret Elardi, whom union officials have targeted with criticism.

"Why she would want to put her workers, our members, and this community through this kind of war, I don't know," said Arnold. "She's been out to bust the union since she's owned the joint."

Talks between the union and the hotel's management stalled in February 1990 when the hotel's representatives put their last offer on the table and then implemented it without the union's agreement.

Union officials have said the result has been wage cuts, cuts in benefits and the destruction of the seniority system. Wages at the Frontier run $1 to $2 an hour lower then at other Strip resorts, union officials said.

The two sides met again in August but failed to make any progress and there have been no new negotiating sessions since.

The Frontier is only one of a few hotels in Las Vegas that has not settled with the union since the old pacts expired in 1989.

The union struck the Horseshoe Hotel-Casino on Fremont Street in 1990 before the hotel and Culinary workers negotiated a new agreement. That strike lasted 9.5 months.