Labor using Culinary film to organize

David Strow

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1999 | 10:36 a.m.

The Culinary Union has produced a film documenting its six-year strike against the Frontier hotel-casino in Las Vegas, and labor officials are preparing to use it as a vehicle for rallying union troops across the United States.

The film was first shown at the national convention of the AFL-CIO in Los Angeles Oct. 8-13. The $150,000 production was paid for by the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees national union, known locally in Las Vegas as the Culinary.

"Jesse Jackson ... said it was the most meaningful film he'd ever seen about a modern-day struggle," said Glen Arnodo, political director for the Culinary. "We made it because it's an important piece of history."

The Culinary sees the film as an important piece of a campaign to help rally the union cause nationwide. Arnodo said a number of union leaders, including Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO, Gerald McEntee of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers (AFSCME) and Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters have talked about distributing the film to union locals across the country.

"If you weren't living it (the strike), you would've thought it was a movie about the American labor movement, and what it should be about," McEntee said in the documentary.

"A lot of people looked at the Frontier strike and thought it was a very important strike, strategically, where unionism was growing ... and they looked at this and saw it as a key," Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the national AFL-CIO, said on the tape. "It could either push organizing forward in an area where we were growing, or it could retard it."

The 50-minute film goes from the euphoric night in 1991 when Culinary members voted to strike, to the cheers of relief in 1997 when Culinary President John Wilhelm held high an edition of the Las Vegas Sun proclaiming "Frontier Sold." Throughout, it details the struggles of striking Frontier employees throughout the long walk-out -- and the sometimes violent clashes that erupted along the Strip.

It interspersed scenes of violence and arrests on the picket line with footage of the labor movement's most historic strikes, including the notorious 1937 "Memorial Day Massacre" of pro-union steelworkers.

Not surprisingly, the film demonized the Elardi family -- owner of the resort during the strike -- and lionized Phil Ruffin, new owner of the resort.

But the real focal point of the film was union solidarity, something Culinary officials said they were trying to drive home.

The film included footage of a Culinary rally in Los Angeles in 1992, shortly after strikers walked across the Mojave Desert.

"God bless you ... your victory will be our victory," union patriarch Cesar Chavez told the crowd.

In another memorable scene, 20,000 union members from across the Southwest blocked the Strip during a march to the Frontier -- the so-called "Desert Solidarity March." Another highlight was the solidarity protest of thousands of AFSCME members in 1993, during a convention in Las Vegas.

Arnodo said the labor movement is also looking at distributing the film to colleges, universities and high schools across the country.

"This is a tremendous example to anyone in any movement ... that if you hang together and you persevere, you can win," Arnodo said. "It took the participation of virtually every union in the country ... it took all of those components to win.

"The recent experience of many unions (with strikes) in the last 10 to 15 years hasn't been good. We've seen many strikes defeated. This clearly was a bright spot in modern history."