Union, contractors huddle after contract vote fails

Robert Macy

Monday, June 29, 1998 | 4:11 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - Talks resumed Monday in a bid to head off a carpenters strike after union workers overwhelmingly rejected a four-year contract.

The current contract expires at midnight Tuesday and there was concern a strike could slow the city's economic boom.

The pact, rejected by union members Sunday night, called for an increase in pay and benefits of $5.83 per hour. A union representative, Marc Furman, did not return phone calls placed Monday in an effort to learn the current pay scale for local carpenters.

Dana Wiggins, a representative with Associated General Contractors, declined to discuss the status of contract talks.

"We're still discussing things with the carpenters and don't like to negotiate in the media," Wiggins said.

Furman, organizer for the Southern California-Nevada Regional Council of Carpenters, would not reveal the final vote count.

"We're back to square one," Furman said after the vote. "We have to meet with the contractors again and talk to our guys in L.A."

The regional council represents more than 6,000 carpenters in Southern Nevada.

Bill Weidner, president and chief operating officer of The Venetian, said the $1.2 billion hotel-casino had a "no strike, no lock-out" clause with union carpenters.

Weidner said there had been talks with management and the union Monday, and "it was agreed that work will continue."

"We signed a work continuation agreement before we started construction, and we would assume the unions would honor the agreement," Weidner said.

The 3,036-room, 36-story Venetian is scheduled to open April 21, 1999.

Alan Feldman, a spokesman for Mirage Resorts Inc., said officials aren't sure what impact a strike might have on their $1.6 billion Bellagio resort, which is in the late stages of construction.

"It is our belief that this will be resolved before it has any impact," Feldman said of the 3,005-room hotel-casino, scheduled to open Oct. 15.

"If it does go to a strike, we would probably have to set up a second gate where other unions could come through," Feldman said. "Obviously we hope it doesn't come to that."