Some casinos cold to Culinary plan

David Strow

Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2001 | 9:38 a.m.

Las Vegas' largest casino operator is expressing a willingness to accept the Culinary Union's offer to reduce its members' hours for the next two months in an effort to mitigate the flood of layoffs that have swept the Strip since mid-September.

The Culinary's offer comes with a key condition -- hotel-casinos must specify how many workers they will bring back if the workweek reductions are implemented. So far, at least 13,000 workers have been laid off on the Strip, and the Culinary is hopeful the proposal will bring many of them back to work.

Some of the most severe layoffs have occurred at MGM MIRAGE's five Las Vegas casinos. So far, in excess of 6,000 workers have been laid off at the company's properties. MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman said the company wants to work with the union to reduce that number.

"Our viewpoint is the same as theirs. We want to see this impact as few people as possible in terms of layoffs," Feldman said."We want to get as many people working as we can, and we will work with them over the coming days to facilitate that objective."

He cautioned, however, that it isn't a program that can be adopted immediately.

"The number of people working changes every day," Feldman said. "There will be some people who will now be able to be brought back. We're going to have to get to that number. It's not a calculation that can be made immediately.

"There's no way to snap your fingers and just make this happen. This is going to take a little while. By week's end, we should have all this done."

But other companies aren't so sure. One is Mandalay Resort Group, which has laid off 4,500 statewide.

"What makes it tough is three weeks have passed, and we've already implemented what we need to do to run our business," said Kit Turner, director of human resources for Mandalay. "We're not going to reinvent the wheel. It's a little late."

Still, some of Mandalay's properties are considering it, Turner said.

The Culinary's collective bargaining contracts do not permit casinos to reduce the weekly hours of full-time workers, even in times of crisis. As a result, union employees were more heavily affected by layoffs, Turner said; non-union employees have also experienced layoffs, she said, but to a lesser degree, as their work hours could be reduced.

The Culinary's offer of workweek reductions would last through Nov. 26, or until citywide hotel occupancy levels remain above 80 percent for two consecutive weeks. Only properties that have experienced "substantial" layoffs could participate, and the property would have to freeze hiring in the effected departments.

"This is a three-page document with a number of rules and requirements, and we're looking into the application of those rules and requirements in each of our departments," said Debbie Munch, spokeswoman for Park Place Entertainment Corp.

Park Place has laid off 1,500 at its five Las Vegas casinos; Munch didn't say whether Park Place was willing to support the measure.

As business starts to return to Las Vegas, at least on the weekends, some of the workforce cuts are already being rolled back. Many Mandalay workers laid off were "steady extras" -- on-call workers who typically worked full-time weeks.=20

With occupancy rising this weekend, Turner said some of those workers, such as housekeepers, are returning, albeit to much shorter workweeks.

"This past weekend was very good," Turner said. "We're calling many of the room (reservation clerks) back in, because call volume is up. We're encouraged by the increase in call volume."

What casinos will have to begin worrying about, a Las Vegas labor attorney said, are the legal issues surrounding the layoffs.

"When the dust settles, there will be ... claims from this," attorney Gary Moss said. "You'd better be able to explain it when the time comes, because you'll probably have to."

Discrimination lawsuits are a possibility. For example, Moss pointed out a resort could have been undertaking efforts to hire more minority employees in recent months. If that resort begins laying off workers by seniority, layoffs will fall disproportionately on minorities, he said.

"If it turns out a disproportionate number of people in a particular minority group are laid off, you can face a discrimination claim," Moss said. "Whether you intended to do it or not is irrelevant. You need to step back before you pull the trigger and ask, 'Is there a red flag here?"'

Howard Cole, a Las Vegas labor attorney, said he believes the experiences of recent weeks will have many employers taking a much closer look at their rights under collective bargaining agreements with unions, particularly during times of crisis. And he said it will force re-examination of the federal WARN Act, which mandates that a company must give 60 days' notice of layoffs if it cuts 33 percent of its workforce or at least 500 workers.

The general legal opinion is that the current situation exempts the resorts from giving this notice, but the law is far from clear. "There were issues that emerged from this that were not contemplated by the act ... things came up that, frankly, we thought would never happen," Cole said. "It's something we have to look at in the future."

Though layoffs have been severe, Cole argued casino companies have absorbed a worse hit.

"Clearly the layoffs were not as deep a reflection as the declines in occupancy, (room) rates and patronage," Cole said.