MGM MIRAGE disputes union claims

Thursday, Sept. 6, 2001 | 11:12 a.m.

A spokesman for MGM MIRAGE is disputing claims that security workers at its MGM Grand Detroit casino lost seniority rights and grievance procedures when they voted to dismiss their union.

Security workers at the Detroit casino voted 60-35 to dismiss the Michigan Association of Police last week, six months into a four-year contract. The move prompted Joel Felt, a labor relations specialist for the union, to tell the Detroit News that the workers now "have no union, no contract, no grievance procedures and no seniority rights."

"We always respect the right of our employees to determine whether they need representation," said MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman. "In this case, our employees made a decision not to be represented by the union, quite possibly because they receive a wide array of benefits, as well as a grievance procedure and a seniority procedure, without the need for union representation.

"(The union claim) was clearly intended to make it look as if union representation were all or nothing. In this case, it's clearly not."