Union balks at plan to extend deadline

Thursday, May 16, 2002 | 11:10 a.m.

A lead casino industry negotiator proposed extending contract talks with the Culinary Union for one month, as thousands of union members prepared today to authorize a strike if an agreement can't be reached by a looming June 1 deadline.

"If they're serious about avoiding a strike, they should explore it," said Mike Sloan, a senior vice president for Mandalay Resort Group. "We're certainly willing to do it."

Sloan, whose company has taken a tough stance during the heated negotiations, said "reasonable minds" could find a way to keep both sides talking beyond the June 1 deadline.

But John Wilhelm, the union's international president and lead negotiator, laughed at Sloan's suggestion, saying it doesn't make any sense.

"This is the guy who led the charge in the (health and welfare) fund meeting in March, demanding that if there isn't sufficient money committed on June 1, the fund will have to make radical cuts in benefits," Wilhelm said.

"The employer trustees, led by Mike Sloan, created the necessity for a deadline, and the union is simply playing the hand it was dealt."

Keeping the struggling $300 million health and welfare fund afloat and preserving free medical coverage for workers on a long-term basis has been the union's top priority in negotiations with the industry in the past month.

Union members were expected to vote today to authorize a strike for the first time in 18 years if negotiations with 35 hotels break down by May 31, the expiration of the current five-year collective bargaining agreement.

"Based on what we're hearing inside the hotels, we're expecting an overwhelming vote for a strike authorization and a massive turnout, as well," said Glen Arnodo, the union's political director.

"I think that the meeting will send a loud and clear message to the casinos that the workers are extremely serious about these issues and they'll do whatever it takes to get a fair contract."

About 10:15 a.m. today MGM MIRAGE and Mandalay Bay made a temporary offer of a health fund rate of 50 cents an hour to Culinary Union workers. That's far lower than what the union has asked for.

"It's a stop-gap measure to take away the need, as the union sees it, to strike," MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman said. "It gives us some more time to talk."

If accepted, the rate would start on June 1 and would continue for 30 days, Feldman said.

The offer could be extended.

Union officials were at the morning strike vote meeting and immediately unavailable for comment.

Arnodo said the union is hoping for a turnout of as many as 15,000 members at the Thomas & Mack Center, where the voting is taking place by secret ballot in two sessions, one at 10 a.m. and another at 6 p.m.

Union officials expected to have the results late in the evening.

Most workers pouring into the Thomas & Mack Center this morning said they would vote to authorize the strike.

"We are fighting for our rights," Carlos Torres, a 43-year-old casino porter at Paris, said. "We're all standing together."

Jackie Williams, a 52-year-old housekeeper at the Bellagio, said she supports a strike vote.

"The hotels have to realize that we need our benefits," she said. "We don't make a lot of money."

Francis White, a 45-year-old cook at the Four Queens, added: "Most members would not like to strike, but at the very least the hotels owe us a decent medical plan."

Today's vote comes while the 50,000-member union and the four major Strip operators -- Mandalay Resort Group, MGM MIRAGE, Park Place Entertainment and Harrah's Entertainment -- continue to negotiate a deal amid heated rhetoric and much public posturing.

Wilhelm said he still believed it was possible to reach an agreement in the next two weeks.

"We hope that in the intervening 15 days that we can find one or more of the major companies who will make a reasonable agreement, and we hope the others will join in that agreement," he said.

But Wilhelm acknowledged that both sides face a difficult task and were too far apart this late in the discussions.

"I think everybody knows what the issues are," he said. "If one or more of these companies will make up their mind to get this done, we'll get it done," he said. "But so far that isn't happening, and it's very disturbing."

However, one company, Park Place Entertainment, reportedly is willing to give the union what it wants the first year of its contract -- a boost of 65 cents an hour per employee for health insurance costs.

Park Place remains at 55 cents an hour for the second year of the union's proposed two-year contract. The union wants an increase of 75 cents per hour.

Wilhelm said the health and welfare fund needs the 65 cents this year to raise roughly $60 million to continue providing free medical coverage to union members.

Talks with Park Place, which is said to be anxious to make a deal, were expected to continue next week. Union leaders also will meet with Harrah's, which also wants labor peace.

Before the hotels sent the proposal this morning, Wilhelm said no new discussions were scheduled with Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE, which are negotiating jointly with the union.

The strike authorization is the first step in a long line of preparations the union will have to make for a possible walkout on June 1.

"We're all hoping it will be settled by then," Arnodo said. "But there are picket signs to me made, strike shacks to be constructed, picket schedules to be put together, captains to be assigned and shifts to be assigned.

"Everything that you have to do, we've got to put together in the next week or so."

Arnodo said the union plans to take its contract fight directly to the Strip Friday night and inform tourists about the plight of some 10,000 of its members who work as housekeepers at the hotels.

Improving working conditions for the housekeepers, the vast majority of whom are Hispanic women, is another major priority for the union during the negotiations.

Housekeepers will be handing out leaflets on the Strip Friday and showing a union-produced film about their daily struggles.