Casino labor dispute bill to die in Senate

Friday, Jan. 30, 1998 | 10:36 a.m.

First published on June 24, 1993.

CARSON CITY - An Assembly-approved bill designed to allow the State Gaming Control Board to become involved in labor disputes at casinos appears headed for defeat in the Senate.

AB312, which passed by an overwhelming margin in the Assembly, was authored by Assemblyman Wendell Williams D-Las Vegas, as a result of the bitter 22-month strike at the Frontier Hotel.

Top Culinary Union officials, while blasting Frontier management, urged the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday to send the bill to the full Senate.

But the panel's chairman, Sen. Mark James, RLas Vegas, said after the two-hour hearing that he might not even bring the bill up for a committee vote.

"I'm inclined to think that it has some significant problems," James said.

AB312 would expand the Control Board's ability to discipline licensees by allowing the board to examine a casino's "record of compliance with federal and state laws, regulations and policies."

It also would give the board authority to order any casino with at least 250 employees on strike for 90 days to submit to binding arbitration.

Lawyers for the Nevada Resort Association, the political arm of the gaming industry in Southern Nevada, told the Judiciary Committee the bill is unconstitutional because it circumvents federal labor laws prohibiting the Control Board from intervening in collective bargaining disputes.

John Wilhelm, Western regional director of the international Culinary Union, sail his organization plans to push for changes this year in the federal laws.

He also told the committee the union will mount a campaign to place the issues outlined in AB312 on the ballot next year if the bill fails in the Senate.

"The Frontier is a leading example of why this legislation is needed," Wilhelm said. "If the Senate won't do it, the people will do it themselves."

Blackie Evans, executive director of the state AFL-CIO, said the bill would move Nevada into the 21st century when dealing with labor disputes.

He said the bitter Frontier strike is a taste of what could happen in 1994 when more than 30 casino contracts in Las Vegas come up for renewal.

Wilhelm reminded committee members about the bloody casino strike on the Strip in 1984 that attracted negative national publicity to Las Vegas.

"What happened in 1984 will be a dress rehearsal for 1994," he said.

The Frontier and the Culinary Union are undergoing a fact-finding process, initiated by Gov. Bob Miller, in an attempt to resolve what is believed to be the longest strike in Nevada history.

It is one of the longest labor disputes in the nation.

Wilhelm chastised the Gaming Control Board for failing to discipline the Frontier for what he called "blatant violations" of federal and state laws.

But Control Board Chairman Bill Bible pointed out that the agency recently filed a complaint against the Frontier that resulted in a $100,000 fine for violating casino cash reporting regulations.