Clinton, Gore to meet in LV with labor leaders

Thursday, March 12, 1998 | 10:02 a.m.

The eyes of the nation's labor movement will be on Las Vegas next week, as President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore top a list of political heavyweights coming to town to meet with AFL-CIO leaders.

Clinton plans to sit down Wednesday with members of the AFL-CIO executive council, which is gathering in Las Vegas for the first time ever.

The 13-million-member AFL-CIO is in the middle of a massive organizing drive here. It's president, John Sweeney, has called Las Vegas the "hottest union city in America."

While here, Clinton also is expected to visit a local work site, tentatively set for 11 a.m., before returning to Washington later in the evening, AFL-CIO spokeswoman Deborah Dion said today.

Gore is scheduled to address the executive council at Bally's at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dion said.

Prior to that, the vice president plans to conduct a roundtable discussion with local workers, she said.

On Thursday evening, Gore will be the star attraction at two fund-raisers at Bally's for the Nevada Democratic Party. Democrats are hoping to raise $500,000.

House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., is slated to address the executive council at 3 p.m. Thursday, Dion said.

Gephardt will participate in a late-afternoon fund-raiser at Harrah's for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The event, sponsored by the American Gaming Association, also is expected to attract other top House Democrats, such as Charles Rangel of New York, Martin Frost of Texas and John Lewis of Georgia.

Both Gore and Gephardt, considered the leading Democratic candidates for president in 2000, have been courting labor leaders for some time.

At 9 a.m. Friday, Dion said, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman is scheduled to address the AFL-CIO leaders at Bally's. Herman also plans a round-table discussion with workers.

The executive council has a heavy work scheduled planned next week, Dion said.

Among the subjects to be discussed will be labor's political and organizing agenda.

The labor leaders will begin arriving Monday for a working womens' conference, Dion said.

During a visit to Las Vegas in February 1997, Sweeney kicked off a massive organizing drive here.

The Culinary Union, Service Employees International Union and Building Trades Council as spending millions on the campaign to increase union membership.

Sweeney said at the time that Las Vegas is on the verge of supplanting New York City as the "heartbeat of the American labor movement."

The recently settled Frontier hotel-casino strike, one of the longest in the nation's history, is expected to get more attention when the labor leaders converge on Las Vegas.

Ed Hanley, international president of the Culinary Union, is hosting a reception at the New Frontier for Sweeney and other top AFL-CIO leaders, such as Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, who threw their support to the striking Frontier workers.

The strike ended Feb. 1 after more than six years, when new owner Phil Ruffin took over the Strip resort.

Nevada AFL-CIO boss Blackie Evans also plans to meet at the New Frontier with his counterparts from other states.

The labor movement has vowed to help bring business to the New Fronitier, which re-opened under a union contract.