LA march an inspiration

Thursday, Jan. 29, 1998 | 12:06 p.m.

Therese Lee ASSOCIATED PRESS

First published on Jan 17, 1992.

LOS ANGELES - Striking Las Vegas hotel workers who marched across the desert to rally support for their cause are an inspiration to union workers everywhere, the Teamsters union president-elect says.

Ron Carey, who won an upset victory last month with his pledge to clean up the scandal-scarred union, said the 300-mile march dramatizes the need to abolish the practice of firing strikers.

"It's a fight for working people to get a fair shake," Carey said Thursday. "We look throughout this country and see this technique (permanent replacement) and it's unfair. How else do working people fight to get a better life?"

Ten workers left Las Vegas on foot for Los Angeles on Jan. 4 to call attention to their strike against the Frontier Hotel and Casino.

The marchers crossed into Los Angeles County: Wednesday and were scheduled to speak to local politicians Friday at City Hall, union organizers said Thursday.

Five unions, representing food workers, bartenders and carpenters, struck the hotel on Sept. 21 over issues involving higher pay and better health benefits.

The unions have also protested what they see as the desire of management to fire the nearly 550 workers on strike.

The strikers have called for passage of a bill that would make it an unfair labor practice to permanently replace striking workers.

The Senate should vote on that bill within the next few weeks, said Matthew Walker, a spokesman for the Hotel Em ployees & Restaurant Employees International Union, one of the five unions striking the Frontier.

Telephone calls to Steve Cohen, an attorney for the Frontier, were not returned Thursday. The hotel has consistently refused to; comment on the 4-month-old strike.

The Frontier walkout and cross-desert march has united the labor movement, Carey said at a news conference held at the Hyatt Hotel near LOB Angeles International Airport.

"An injustice to one is an injustice to all," he said.

Carey, 55, ran on a cleanhouse platform in last month's election, the first rank-and-file vote in the 89-year history of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.