Golden Gate strike ends; workers keep free insurance

Wednesday, July 10, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

The Culinary Union signed a new five-year contract with the Golden Gate late Tuesday, ending a nine-day strike downtown.

Golden Gate employees unanimously ratified the contract, which protects their free health insurance, on a 108-0 vote about 7:30 p.m. following an intense day of negotiations at the union hall.

Shortly after the vote, the union took down its picket line on Fremont Street and instructed some 165 of its Golden Gate members to return to work on Thursday.

The agreement, which is similar to the one the union reached with other economically distressed casinos downtown, ended three months of contentious negotiations with 35 properties on the Strip and downtown.

Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor said the Golden Gate deal capped an unprecedented time of stepped-up activism among union members.

The larger role of rank-and-file members in the negotiations, he said, allowed the union to protect free medical coverage for members over the next five years during a period of what is expected to be skyrocketing health care costs.

"We have renewed the real sense of the union, and that bodes well for us in the future," Taylor said.

The union in the coming weeks, Taylor said, will turn its attention to organizing some 15,000 nonunion workers at the Venetian, Aladdin, Palms and the six neighborhood properties owned by Station Casinos.

"We're going to be very aggressive about that," he said. "We expect vehement opposition from those employers."

Taylor said the union felt added pressure to reach an agreement with the Golden Gate on Tuesday after it was informed by owner Mark Brandenburg that the downtown casino, the oldest in Las Vegas, was on the brink of having to close its doors.

The Golden Gate deal was similar to those signed by Binion's Horseshoe and the Castaways, two financially troubled casinos that signed agreements at the 11th hour to avert a July 1 strike, Taylor said.

The agreement calls for the 106-room Golden Gate, which was built in 1906, to make $2 in hourly increases for each employee over the length of the contract, about 20 cents less than the rest of the downtown casinos

It also allows the Golden Gate to defer those increases for up to 11 months in each year and divert some of the money allocated for pensions to the union's health fund.

Taylor said the Golden Gate agreed to give each of its union members a lump sum in December 2004 to cover a 40 cent hourly increase it never paid last December under the old contract.

An unprecedented provision, Taylor said, has been written into the agreement to allow the union to go directly to court, rather than the lengthy arbitration process, to recover any payments the Golden Gate doesn't make to the union.

The union also has the right to set up a picket line at the casino during any labor disputes over the contract.

LaVonne Ritter, of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, attended the final day of negotiations with the Golden Gate, and Taylor said her presence was helpful.

The union went on strike July 1 after the Golden Gate refused to take the same deal offered the Horseshoe and Castaways.