No one budging on Culinary talks

Friday, June 21, 2002 | 11:17 a.m.

Contract talks between the Culinary Union and several downtown hotels ended Thursday without any movement on both sides.

Attorney Greg Kamer, who represents Binion's Horseshoe, Four Queens, El Cortez Las Vegas Club, Plaza and Western, said he believed the talks went well.

"We made some progress, but we didn't take anything off the table," Kamer said.

Union officials, who have ripped a counter-offer by Kamer all week, were cool to Thursday's session, saying the downtown hotels need to get more serious about wanting to reach a deal as the July 1 strike deadline approaches.

"This is a horrendous proposal," Taylor said this morning. "I implored them to come to us next week with a proposal that was constructive and not a Christmas wish list."

Glen Arnodo, the union's political director, added:

"Our contract committee is hearing proposals that would essentially rob them of any job security whatsoever. There's no way to explain to these workers why they're ripping apart their contracts."

The offer proposes switching union employees from the union medical plan to company health insurance, giving the hotels freedom to subcontract out union jobs, reducing work shifts to as little as four hours, and hiring an unlimited number of part-time employees.

Kamer said the downtown hotels threw out these suggestions because they can't afford to sign the rich Strip contract that has given the majority of the union's 50,000 members their largest increase ever in wages and benefits.

But he insisted his clients were looking for a deal and not trying to provoke a strike.

"Not all of the pieces of the puzzle are on the table yet," Kamer said. "Until we know our real bottom line economics, we're not in a position to take language off the table."

Both sides were scheduled to meet again on Monday, but Taylor said that session might be put off until Wednesday.

The union was hoping for a show of force from its members today during marches on Fremont Street to call attention to the slow-moving talks.

Some union officials predicted as many as 15,000 marchers, but Taylor said a more realistic turnout would be 8,000 to 9,000.

The union meets Sunday with the Boyd Gaming, which owns the Stardust, Fremont and Main Street Station, and both sides were hopeful of reaching deals.