Columnist Jeff German: Post-9/11 jobless get help from contract

Friday, June 7, 2002 | 5:11 a.m.

IF YOU EXAMINE the new contract between the Culinary Union and the Strip megaresorts, you'll quickly see that Sept. 11 remains on the minds of labor and management within the casino industry.

Union leaders, still bothered by the post-Sept. 11 layoffs, included language in the just-ratified five-year agreement designed to make it easier for some 2,000 of their members who still are unemployed to find new jobs.

It wasn't the most highly publicized aspect of the sometimes contentious negotiations with the giant Strip properties. Free health care for union members and improved working conditions for housekeepers stole the show during the talks.

But in hindsight it's important to note the layoff language in the new contract because the megaresorts did not challenge it. To some that's an acknowledgement from the casino industry that it indeed overreacted after Sept. 11.

"We feel that both the union and the employers have a responsibility to do everything possible for those still affected by the post-Sept. 11 work reductions," says John Wilhelm, the union's international president and chief negotiator.

"The employers have been very receptive to that. It has not been a bone of contention in the contract talks."

Robert Stewart, a senior vice president for Park Place Entertainment, says the new contract attempts to address the criticism the industry received after Sept. 11.

"I think there was a great deal of concern expressed by union representatives and others about the whole chain of events that occurred following Sept. 11," Stewart says. "We believe the new language in the contract is an equitable and reasonable way to try to deal with those concerns."

Park Place, however, no longer has to deal with that problem.

Stewart says "virtually all" of the 2,100 employees laid off at his company's five Strip resorts have been rehired.

In all, about 15,000 workers, mostly union members, were let go throughout the industry after Sept. 11 because of a dramatic drop in tourism.

Though most gradually were taken back as business returned to the Strip, life has not been good to those who continue to collect unemployment checks.

The new contract with the Strip megaresorts gives the laid-off union members a better chance of finding work by broadening their opportunities to bid on vacant positions within their hotels.

If the worker isn't qualified for an open position, the contract says, the worker will have an opportunity to enroll in a union-sponsored training program to learn that job or others at the hotel.

The contract also extends the seniority rights of the Sept. 11 employment casualties. Workers who are rehired by the end of December can return with full seniority.

There are no guarantees of a job, but at least the new agreement gives the unemployed hope of some day returning to work.

And that speaks well of both labor and management.

As for labor, it appears that Sept. 11 continues to weigh on the minds of Wilhelm and other Culinary Union leaders.

Wilhelm says he has no immediate plans to restore the 20 percent pay cut he took after the terrorist attacks. Local union leaders, such as Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor, also haven't been in a hurry to recoup their salary reductions.

For Wilhelm, the cut was a big one, chopping about $55,000 off of his $273,000 annual base salary.

But he's not complaining.

"I'm fully aware that I am paid generously by my union," he says.

Lately, Wilhelm has earned every penny of his worth as the mastermind behind the biggest increase ever in wages and benefits for Culinary Union members -- all unbelievably in the aftermath of the casino industry's worst recession.

And by addressing the layoffs in the new Strip contract, Wilhelm even has helped the industry ease its post-Sept. 11 conscience.