Culinary Union contemplates organizing neighborhood casinos

John Wilen

Tuesday, May 4, 1999 | 10:40 a.m.

At the moment, the Culinary Union is focused on organizing workers at the new Strip megaresorts.

The reason is simple. Where else can the union strike an agreement with an employer to automatically bring 3,000 employees into its ranks?

But that could change if the pace of new megaresort openings slows long enough for the union to turn its sights toward the proliferating neighborhood casinos that by-and-large are not unionized.

"Our focus historically has always been the Strip and downtown," said Culinary Union organizer Tom Snyder. "Just keeping up with all the growth on the Strip occupies all of our energies. ... When it's growing so fast, that's where our focus has to be."

But the union is aware of the recent growth in the locals gaming market and will turn its attention that direction, eventually.

"The growth in neighborhood casinos is a much more recent phenomenon," Snyder said. "We get contacted all the time by workers in the neighborhood casinos. There's a need for unions in those casinos, and we expect to have an organizing program there."

Snyder said the union has no harmful intentions. It simply wants to negotiate contracts acceptable to everyone.

"We have no intention, and our members have no intention, of putting anyone out of business," he said.

Nonunion locals casinos include all four Station Casinos Inc. properties, as well as Sam's Town, the Fiesta, the Reserve and Arizona Charlie's. Also nonunion will be the Resort at Summerlin, which opens in June, and the Rio, which was recently purchased by Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

Noting that Harrah's other properties are unionized, Snyder said the union is "addressing that now," at the Rio. He declined to elaborate.

"The Rio is not in negotiations with the Culinary Union," Scott Bogatz, vice president and general counsel of the Rio, said.

Station Casinos officials declined to comment.

The union is involved in a long-running dispute with Santa Fe Gaming Corp. over a National Labor Relations Board-supervised election at the Santa Fe hotel-casino five years ago. The union claims it won the election, but the company has appealed the results.

Snyder said the union tried to organize the Santa Fe after receiving repeated requests from workers there.

"There was such an overwhelming call by Santa Fe workers ... that we decided to respond to that," Snyder said.

Santa Fe officials feel the union targeted the Santa Fe because of its success in defeating a union organization attempt at its Laughlin hotel-casino, the Pioneer.

"Just keeping up with all the growth on the Strip occupies all of our energies. ... When it's growing so fast, that's where our focus has to be."Tom SnyderCULINARY UNION ORGANIZER