Strike goes into third year

Lynn Waddell

Friday, Jan. 30, 1998 | 9:39 a.m.

NEITHER rain, sleet nor 115-degree weather has stop ped about 290 former Frontier Hotel & Gambling Hall workers from picketing outside the Strip hotel-casino.

They continue to shout "scab" and "scum" with vigor at those who enter the casino despite the fact they've been picketing for almost three years.

"I'm out here five days a week, six hours a day and my skin is probably going to fall off within six years," said one former Frontier cocktail waitress, who requested anonymity.

They've had rallies, marches and few fights with Frontier patrons outside the casino. One fight even drew national attention after a video tape of it was aired on CNN. Seven union strikers were arrested and convicted for their attack on two California tourists.

But now the labor dispute has been going on for so long that the blaring protests and union supply shanties outside the hotel-casino almost seem normal to many residents and visitors.

"The don't even see us," said Vince Curreri, a former Frontier porter. "They say we've been out here three years and are becoming a fixture."

Frontier General Manager Tom Elardi didn't respond to requests for an interview about the ongoing strike.

Initially, the strike thinned the crowds inside the resort, but the casino was busy on a recent Friday morning. Strikers had hoped that business would wain to the point Elardi would be forced to renew a contract with them. There haven't been any contract negotiations since September 1993.

"I can't understand why people continue to go in there when there's so many other casinos not on strike," said another picketing cocktail waitress, who also requested anonymity. "If we could stop them, then maybe we could get a contract."

Strikers are disappointed but undaunted by the lack of success they have had in getting a contract with the resort.

"Not once do I think I'm not going to do it anymore," said former Frontier food server Lee Davis. "If we quit, we might as well throw the whole town up for grabs."

Davis had worked at the Frontier for more than 17 years when she and about 550 other workers began the strike on Sept. 21, 1991. The hotel-casino was owned by the Summa Corp. and was union when she started working there, she said.

But then Margaret Elardi bought the property in 1988 and didn't renew the existing union contract when it expired in 1990.

When it expired, the Elardi family stopped contributions to the union workers' pension fund. Negotiations were attempted before the strike, but failed.

Workers and management hit an impasse initially because the Elardis didn't want to contribute to the union's health and welfare fund. In most recent negotiations, the union offered to give that up. Management then refused to allow more than 100 strikers to return, claiming the employees misbehaved on the picket line.

Those pickets all worked at the Frontier, Curreri said.

"All of us that are out here worked in there," Curreri said as he pointed to the Frontier. "Anybody who tells you anything else is a liar."

Curreri said most of the remaining 290 strikers have other jobs and work the picket line when they can. Some others have had trouble getting full-time work and pick up banquet work when they can. Several, like Davis and Curreri, just picket full-time. Those who picket six hours, five days in a week get $200 in strike pay, which is taxable.

"I don't have anything to worry about losing," Davis said. "I've about sold everything I possible could. I just get by week to week and thank God I'm not pushed out into the street."

The two cocktail waitresses who requested anonymity said other casinos have been hesitant to hire them once they learn they worked at the Frontier.

"It's hard to tell them (prospective employers) we're Frontier strikers, but if we don't tell them, we won't get hired because they think we don't have any experience," the waitress said.