Culinary, Stratosphere reach agreement

Tuesday, June 11, 2002 | 11:01 a.m.

The Culinary Union reached a tentative five-year agreement with the Stratosphere Monday, leaving 15 casinos, mostly from downtown, still without contracts with a looming July 1 strike deadline.

John Wilhelm, the union's international president and chief negotiator, said the Stratosphere contract, which covers 1,270 employees, is the same as those signed with the Riviera and Strip megaresorts giving the union its largest increase ever in wages and benefits.

"It's identical, which we're very happy about it," Wilhelm said. "This agreement is the result of a superb example of labor-management cooperation.

"When the Stratosphere was in trouble for several years after it opened in 1996, the employees, the union and management worked out reasonable accommodations that maintained our health plan and pension plan and protected employee rights, but allowed the Stratosphere to get back on its feet.

"Now that the Mr. (Carl) Icahn owns the Stratosphere and has made substantial additional investments in the hotel and is doing well," Wilhelm said, "this agreement speaks very well of Mr. Icahn and his management team and their recognition of the support and cooperation of the employees and the union over the past several years."

Union leaders praised a similar deal reached last Wednesday for some 800 Riviera employees, saying it should send a message to a group of downtown hotels taking a hard line in the negotiations.

Wilhelm echoed those words this morning following the Stratosphere deal.

"I think this sends a strong message that the contract is a fair contact, and employers who care about their employees ought to agree to it," he said.

Agreements last month with 18 megaresorts provided a nearly $3.24 an hour increase in wages and benefits over five years for some 36,000 union members.

The Stratosphere deal leaves three Strip casinos, Sahara, Barbary Coast and Stardust, without contracts. But union leaders are hopeful of reaching agreements with those properties soon.

Wilhelm, however, said no further talks are scheduled with other properties this week. The union meets Monday with Boyd Gaming, which owns the Stardust and two downtown casinos with expiring contracts, Fremont and Main Street Station.

"This week," Wilhelm said, "we're going to explore a way to settle the remaining contracts and unfortunately get ready for a strike in the downtown area.

"I'm very concerned about downtown. There isn't any effort being made by those companies to try to negotiate an agreement. There's an effort to be confrontational and nasty in public."

Wilhelm said Gregory Kamer, a lawyer who represents seven downtown casinos was using "supercharged rhetoric calculated to have a fight, not a settlement."

Kamer has said his clients -- Binion's Horseshoe, Four Queens, Fitzgerald's, Union Plaza, Las Vegas Club, El Cortez and the Western -- can't afford the Strip deal.

He has proposed shifting employees from the union's health insurance to less expensive company medical plans to save his clients millions of dollars. The union has rejected that proposal.

Others casinos yet to reach agreements with the union are the Castaways, Jerry's Nugget and Golden Gate.