Frontier loses ruling

Lynn Waddell

Friday, Jan. 30, 1998 | 9:52 a.m.

After more than three years on the picket line outside the Frontier hotel-casino, striking workers have gotten some more official vindication.

Administrative Law Judge Gerald Wacknov has ruled that the Frontier's unfair labor practices prompted the strike and therefore the Strip resort can't hire permanent replacement workers.

"This means that it can't end with the union losing," said Jim Arnold, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Local 226. "They can't make the strike go away."

The National Labor Relations Board ruling also calls for the rehire of seven workers terminated or suspended shortly before the strike because of their union activities.

Frontier General Manager and part-owner Tom Elardi couldn't be reached for comment.

Culinary lawyer Richard McCracken said the resort has the option of appealing the decision to Washington, D.C.

"They can delay this with appeals, but it will just delay the final day of reckoning," McCracken said.

Under the ruling, strikers could go back to their jobs at the Frontier immediately, even though the company has replaced them.

The strikers, however, don't want to go back until they have secured another union contract.

"We're not going back in because there's a principle that has to be upheld," said Vincent Curreri, striking porter and picket line captain. "It's not the salary. It's all the other benefits."

Dunell Henderson, a fellow striker and porter, said the work conditions haven't changed inside the Frontier and that's what prompted the strike.

About 550 union employees began picketing the family-owned casino after the company ceased contributions to the employee pension fund.

Several attempts have been made by local and state officials to resolve the strike, but the Frontier has been reluctant to accept the union's insurance plan and rehire all the striking workers.

In 1992, the NLRB ruled that the Frontier had illegally cut off the union workers' pension-fund contributions, prevented union representatives from talking to employees and eavesdropped on employee's private conversations about the union.

Between 200 and 250 workers continue to picket the resort even though many have other jobs now.

Curreri said they concentrate on having the picket line fuller between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m., the hours of heaviest walk-in traffic.

The recent ruling helps the morale of the strikers as they prepare for a hot summer.

"It does pick up our spirits, even though we've known they were wrong all along," Curreri said. "Hopefully this ruling will show the community that the Frontier is wrong."