Culinary stresses importance of unity

Lynn Waddell

Friday, Jan. 30, 1998 | 9:28 a.m.

Culinary Union leaders met with more than 10,000 members this week in an attempt to fire them up for upcoming contract negotiations and organizing campaigns.

"It's extremely important that we stick together," said John Wilhelm, Western regional director of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, the Culinary's parent.

"We need to focus on the contract itself, the nonunion problem and ongoing strike at the Frontier," Wilhelm said.

Wilhelm and Culinary Local 226 Secretary-Treasurer Jim Arnold spoke to the union membership at two general membership meetings Monday at Cashman Field Center.

Culinary and Bartenders contracts with Las Vegas resorts expire May 31. Union leaders are negotiating new contracts.

Wilhelm refused to talk specifically about any wage increases or health and welfare benefits in the contracts now under negotiation.

He said the most important issue facing the union is the question of nonunion hotels. Having more nonunion resorts, especially on the Strip, can hurt the union's ability to negotiate.

"The reality is that if we let the nonunion problem get away from us, we will find it very difficult to continue to negotiate good contracts," Wilhelm said.

The MGM Grand, the largest hotel in the city, employs 7,500 workers and opened nonunion in December. During recent contract negotiations, employers have been mentioning MGM Grand's nonunion status, Wilhelm said.

Wilhelm said the union is continuing to work to organize the massive resort and has been talking with MGM workers off property.

"I look at that as a long-term project," Wilhelm said of the MGM organization campaign. "It will take a couple of years."

The Frontier hotel-casino has been nonunion since union workers began picketing in September 1991. There are still more than 300 people picketing the hotel each week, he said.

Although the Frontier has continued to operate despite the nearly three-year strike, Wilhelm said the union has gained something and will continue to picket there "as long as it takes."

"I think it's been very effective," Wilhelm said. "The Elardi family has basically destroyed the Frontier's image. It has put a dent in their business."

The union may be challenged with trying to organize another new mega-resort in the next few years. The recently announced Desert Kingdom will certainly be an issue in negotiations Thursday with ITT Sheraton concerning its Desert Inn hotel-casino, Wilhelm said.

The union will attempt to secure a clause in Sheraton's contract that will require any additional Sheraton property on the Strip to be union.

Wilhelm wouldn't speculate on whether Sheraton management will be opposed to it.

"It's premature to say," Wilhelm said. "There's a lot of important issues. I'm sure there will be a lot of disagreements."