Steelworkers try negotiating first contract with Laughlin resort

Grace Leong

Monday, Aug. 14, 2000 | 10:56 a.m.

The Steelworkers union is preparing to negotiate what it hopes will be its first contract with the Flamingo Hilton-Laughlin after the union won a second election in April 1999, capping a six-year battle to represent up to 829 eligible hotel-casino workers.

"We're optimistic that we will reach an agreement with Flamingo Laughlin," said Terry Bonds, Steelworkers district director for a nine-state region including Nevada. "We will meet again sometime in August to negotiate for the first contract. The terms aren't settled yet."

The Steelworkers have been recognized by the government to represent all full-time and regular part-time uniformed hotel workers in the housekeeping, food and beverage, warehouse, front desk, bell, valet parking, retail sales and cashier departments. Excluded are casino workers, security and administrative workers.

The hotel-casino is owned by Park Place Entertainment Corp. of Las Vegas, where spokesman Geoff Davis declined comment on the union issue.

Bonds said the Steelworkers are also in talks with five other casinos in Laughlin, but he declined to reveal further details.

"The workers at those casinos are working under the same conditions like the Flamingo Laughlin's workers with low wages and benefits. Some are employees at will and there are no just-cause clauses in their contracts they can depend on if they were disciplined or terminated."

Flamingo-Laughlin hotel workers initially rejected union representation by a 495-389 vote in July 1993, but the National Labor Relations Board declared the union the victor anyway, saying the hotel had committed unfair labor practices and made a fair election impossible.

The NLRB ruling was overturned in July 1998 by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., which ruled the NLRB failed to justify ordering the hotel-casino to recognize the union.

The court said factors such as passage of time and turnover among management and workers would have made holding another election possible.

Bonds said workers at the second election in April 1999 voted for union representation by a 469-304 vote.

The NLRB in November 1999 investigated and rejected the Flamingo-Laughlin's objections to the union's conduct during the second election and certified the union as the hotel-casino's exclusive collective bargaining agent.