Sharpton: Casino company has not improved

Stephen Curran

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said Thursday it's business as usual for MGM MIRAGE when it comes to employing minority contractors.

A six-month review by Sharpton's National Action Network has found that MGM MIRAGE has systematically dismissed minority contractors since the resort company initiated a high-profile effort to increase the number of minorities on its payroll, he said.

"The MGM made the commitments and then six months later said some of the contractors had not lived up," Sharpton said at a brief press conference in the lobby of the Grant Sawyer Building in Las Vegas, which houses the Nevada Gaming Commission.

The casinos initiated the program following the merger of the MGM Grand with Mirage Resorts in 2000, when leaders of the black community protested the gaming industry's record in hiring minorities for contracts and management positions.

MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman said the company has an active diversity program and has made progress in expanding its base of minority contractors. Sharpton, he said, is being "led down the path of misinformation" by Gene Collins, chairman of Nevada chapter of the National Action Network.

When MGM MIRAGE announced the creation of a diversity program, Collins demanded the creation of a $100 million fund as part of a 10-point plan designed to increase the company's outreach efforts to the Las Vegas black community, Feldman said.

The company denied the proposal in June 2000.

"We will not have a diversity program that's simply us passing a check to buy someone's approval," Feldman said. "We'll have none of that."