Friday, June 21, 2002 | 3:01 a.m.
WITH A STRIKE deadline a week away, the Culinary Union is struggling to reach a contract agreement with lower-end downtown casinos that will protect the health benefits of its members.
"The challenge is we have a situation where we've always had a bit of a different contract between downtown and the Strip," Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor says. "We're trying to blend in the differences with the necessities of the health insurance."
The union hopes to reach deals as early as today with three Boyd Gaming casinos -- the Stardust on the Strip and the Fremont and Main Street Station, two of the more profitable downtown hotels capable of accepting the terms of a Strip contract.
Those terms were outlined in a five-year agreement with Strip megaresorts giving about 40,000 of the union's members their largest increase ever in wages and benefits. The deal guarantees free health care for union members and their families.
But the dilemma facing the union this week under the weight of the strike deadline is getting other less-profitable downtown hotels, such as the family-owned Binion's Horseshoe, to agree to a deal that will work for both sides.
To do that the union will have to perform a delicate balancing act at the negotiating table.
The Horseshoe -- along with the Four Queens, El Cortez, Las Vegas Club, Plaza and Western -- contend they just don't have the money for huge increases in health benefits, and they're looking for economic concessions.
The union knows the downtown hotels are not in the same financial position as the Strip properties, but it also is determined to get its downtown members the same health package as those on the Strip.
Talks recently were complicated when attorney Gregory Kamer, who is representing the downtown properties, threw the union a curve in a counteroffer that basically emasculates the current contract.
The proposal suggested switching from the union to company health plans and giving the hotels freedom to subcontract out union jobs, reduce work shifts to as little as four hours and hire an unlimited number of part-time employees.
The hotels say they need this kind of flexibility to maintain the level of benefits the union wants and still keep revenues flowing.
But the union sees the counteroffer as a slap in the face and a sign that the casinos aren't serious about negotiating.
"I don't understand why they put those issues on the table if they want to reach a settlement," Taylor says.
For starters, Taylor says, the hotels know their health plan does not provide as extensive coverage as the union's, and they require employees to pay premiums for family members. Under the union's health and welfare fund, he adds, it takes trustees from both labor and management to make any changes. But under the company's plan, only management can direct changes.
This week, however, the union's first order of business is not coming to a resolution on health care, but saving the essential job security clauses in the contract.
"We've got to deal with these issues that gut the heart of our contract," Taylor says. "Without job security, the contract doesn't mean anything."
Kamer says his clients are willing to deal, but they're looking for the union to make the first move.
And so both sides head into this week's talks waiting for the other to blink.
The union, meanwhile, is looking for Boyd Gaming Chairman Bill Boyd to play a starring role in its balancing act at the bargaining table. It wants the community-minded Boyd to help it reach a global settlement downtown.
But that can't happen until Boyd accepts the economic terms of the Strip contract at his properties.
Boyd's involvement in the overall talks would provide a comfort zone for the union as it considers concessions for his downtown competitors. The union needs Boyd's blessing to avoid the appearance of giving his competitors an unfair advantage.
It's going to be challenging week, indeed, for the union.
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