Union adamant on health plan downtown

Monday, June 10, 2002 | 10:43 a.m.

Downtown Culinary Union members will never accept a management proposal to switch to company health insurance plans, a top union official said this morning.

"We're not going to agree to it," said John Wilhelm, the union's international president and chief negotiator. "Our members downtown made it very clear that they don't want to water down their health plan and pension plan. They're not prepared to do that, and we're going support them."

Lawyers for seven downtown casinos -- Binion's Horseshoe, Four Queens, Fitzgeralds, Union Plaza, Las Vegas Club, El Cortez and the Western -- and the Castaways made the offer to move employees from the union's health fund to the less expensive company plans at a Friday negotiating session that both sides said went badly.

"It was ugly," said Gregory Kamer, who represents the seven downtown resorts. "We are very far apart. The way things are going, we're going to really have to work hard and see a change in direction if we're going to avoid a strike on July 1."

Wilhelm countered: "That kind of confrontational bargaining is not calculated to produce a settlement."

Though both sides said they still want to negotiate, they also are preparing for a walkout.

Union members -- who marched downtown Saturday with hundreds of visiting United Auto Workers to highlight the contentious contract talks -- are helping members with creditors and making picket signs in anticipation of a strike

The casinos are talking to their nonunion employees about filling in at positions that could be vacated by striking workers.

"We're trying to determine whether they have skills at these other jobs," Kamer said. "We would be foolish not to do that with the union telling us they won't capitulate."

Kamer said union leaders did not appear to be interested in Friday's presentation by his clients showing they can't afford the rich five-year contract signed by major Strip casinos.

"I was hoping that they were going to listen with an open mind, but the sense I got was that there was not a whole lot of listening going on," he said.

Kamer and attorney Sal Gugino, who represents the Castaways, said their clients don't have the kind of Strip revenues to make large union-sought increases in contributions to the union's $300 million health fund.

The increases so far have been accepted by 18 Strip resorts and one downtown casino, the Golden Nugget, covering more than 36,000 union members.

But the majority of the downtown casinos believe they could save millions over the length of a new five-year contract by moving employees to company medical insurance. About 65 percent of the workers at the properties, those who don't belong to the union, already are on company plans.

Kamer said he hopes to formally present a counter offer, which includes the health plan switch, to the union by Friday. He said he expected the proposal would provide additional ways to save the companies money and have as little an impact as possible on current employees.

An analysis prepared by the four downtown casinos owned by Jackie Gaughan -- Union Plaza, Las Vegas Club, El Cortez and Western -- shows the Strip contract would add more than $30 million for 1,509 employees to Gaughan's payroll over five years.

Similar financial reviews show that Binion's Horseshoe would have to shell out another $16.7 million for its 828 employees, the Four Queens an extra $8.7 million for 430 union members and Fitzgerald's $8.2 million for 407 workers. The new deal would cost the Castaway's an extra $8.9 million for 441 union employees.

"We're looking at sharpening our pencils and figuring out how we're going to be viable over the next five years," Kamer said.

"We're going to do the best we can to ensure our future. We believe downtown is worth saving, and we're going to stay in the game."

Union leaders, meanwhile, return to the bargaining table with the Stratosphere this afternoon.

Talks are scheduled with the Boyd Group, which has expiring contracts at the Stardust, Fremont and Main Street Station, on June 17.

The Sahara, Barbary Coast, Golden Gate and Jerry's Nugget also have yet to reach a deal with the union.