Miller, Jones woo crucial labor support

Bob Shemeligian

Friday, Jan. 30, 1998 | 9:33 a.m.

Gov. Bob Miller is looking ahead to Tuesday's vote at the annual Nevada AFL-CIO convention at the Tropicana Hotel for a major endorsement in his bid for re-election.

But Mayor Jan Laverty Jones, who is seeking either to block the necessary two-thirds vote to endorse Miller or to gain a split endorsement, is looking past the September primary, when only one Democratic candidate will be in contention for the state's highest office.

Forrest Darby of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, one of four unions supporting the mayor in the race for governor, said unless both Democratic candidates gain an endorsement "there's going to be bitterness and hard feelings after the primary."

A confident Miller, projected as a favorite to pick up the AFL-CIO endorsement, noted in his speech to 200 union delegates that it's impossible to predict the future. But the "the best indicator of the future is in the past," and his record warrants an endorsement, Miller said.

"It's a record of which I'm very proud, and I share that pride with the tens of thousands of union members who have supported me," Miller said. "It's a record of fighting to protect your right to bargain, your right to demonstrate ... your right to the dignity and prosperity every working person deserves."

Miller, who has the support of local branches of service employees, machinists and ironworkers, among other unions, said that in his 20 years of public services, "I have always enjoyed the support of organized labor, and organized labor has always had my support."

As an example of his support for union workers, Miller said last year he signed an executive order increasing by one third the number of unionized safety inspectors working through the Division of Industrial Relations.

"The new inspectors cost the state a quarter of a million dollars, but it was an investment well made on behalf of the working people of Nevada," said Miller, who said the number of workplace accidents have been significantly reduced.

Miller said he has worked very hard to try to end the long-running Frontier strike.

"I have initiated face-to-face discussions. I didn't ask them (management) to come to the table. I forced them to," he said.

Miller, who refused to cross the picket line when the MGM Grand opened in December, noted that Jones also refused to cross that picket line, but the governor accused Jones of hedging on her decision to do so.

In a speech to a business group in Northern Nevada following the opening of the MGM Grand, Miller quoted Jones as saying her decision not to cross the picket line was "a political decision," and that it "was probably the most difficult decision I ever had to make."

Miller then said, "Well, it wasn't difficult at all for me ... It was a political decision for Mayor Jones. For me, it was a decision based on principle."

Jones, who earlier Sunday had opened the convention by welcoming the union officials and delegates, followed Miller's afternoon address with a few words of her own.

"We seem to have lost sight of our priorities," Jones said, "and these priorities should be the working men and women of this state. We're in a position of leadership because of the workers."

Jones stressed that it is the people who elect officials who have the true power, and it is up to those elected officials to make decisions based on what they believe, rather than how they feel those decisions will be received.

"The decisions we make as leaders are sometimes very difficult, but we must always stand on our principles, because that's all we have," Jones said. "Trust is the important thing, and it's not so much what's promised, but what's delivered."

Quoting President John F. Kennedy, Jones said, "The people who create power make an indispensable contribution to the nation's greatness. But the people who question power make a contribution just as indispensable -- for they determine whether we use power -- or power uses us."