Culinary hopes vote unifies its members

Friday, May 17, 2002 | 10:54 a.m.

An overwhelming Culinary Union vote Thursday to authorize a strike should encourage the casino industry to move toward a collective bargaining agreement, a top union leader said.

"This sends a loud and clear message," said D. Taylor, the union's newly elected secretary-treasurer, following an emotional day of voting at the Thomas & Mack Center. "It's incumbent upon the casinos to respond to these workers. The ball's in their court. Let's see what they say."

Union members -- after listening to fiery speeches in two separate sessions by John Wilhelm, the union's international president and chief negotiator -- voted 18,654 to 877 to authorize a June 1 walkout, the first since 1984, if talks with 35 casinos break down at the end of the month.

"After Sept. 11 these corporations we work for forgot what made them so rich," Wilhelm, in a fever-pitched voice, told some 8,000 cheering union members at the morning voting session. "These corporations forgot that they don't take care of the guests. We take care of the guests.

"We carry the bags. We clean the floors. We serve the food and the drinks. We wash the dishes. And these corporations forgot the biggest department of all. They forgot that we clean the thousands of rooms that made these corporations rich."

Wilhelm urged his members to remain united in the pivotal next two weeks of the heated negotiations.

"We must stick together until every one of our members has a new contract," he said. "No member of our union can be left behind.

"You know they're trying to divide us and defeat us. We're going to turn that around. We're going to stick together and divide them, and by sticking together, we will defeat them."

Mike Sloan, a senior vice president of Mandalay Resort Group, which has taken the hardest company line during the negotiations, said he wasn't impressed with the voting turnout, which union leaders called the largest-ever gathering of its members.

"The only people who came to the meeting were those who favored a strike," Sloan said.

The Mandalay executive explained that his company wants to keep talking with the 50,000-member union, but the union has refused to negotiate.

"We told them a week ago that we were ready to meet at their convenience, and they have yet to respond to us," he said.

During his 25-minute morning speech to members, Wilhelm made it clear that the union as early as next week was looking to strike a deal first with either Park Place Entertainment or Harrah's Entertainment, which have publicly indicated they are anxious to come to an agreement.

Those two companies, along with Mandalay Resort Group and MGM MIRAGE, are among the "Big Four" Strip operators who hold the key to a settlement.

"Our task is to find one or more of the major companies to come forward and negotiate a fair contract and then to insist that rest of your companies follow along," Wilhelm said.

Talks with Park Place and Harrah's are scheduled late next week, but no discussions are planned with Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE, which are negotiating jointly with the union.

Earlier Thursday Wilhelm rejected a formal proposal from Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE negotiators asking for a 30-day extension of the talks to avoid a June 1 strike.

Sloan and MGM MIRAGE Senior Vice President Cynthia Kiser Murphy sent Wilhelm a two-page letter during the morning voting session, offering a temporary increase of 50 cents per hour for each employee to the union's health and welfare fund during the extension.

The two executives pointed out that the $300 million fund's administrators concluded in a May 9 memo that the fund could stay afloat financially if the casinos started contributing an extra 49 cents an hour for each union member next month.

"Such an increase would preserve the existing free health benefits for all Culinary members and their families without increasing the deficit, and still allow the collective bargaining parties to continue negotiations without the disastrous consequence of a June 1 strike," Sloan and Murphy wrote.

But Wilhelm called the offer a "back door attempt to cut benefits" for employees.

"He insisted the increase needed to protect the fund this year is 65 cents an hour, which is what the union is demanding in its new two-year contract with casinos.

"Obviously, it's not a serious proposal," Wilhelm said. "It's just a media stunt. They floated it with the media before they told us."

Sloan, however, said the two companies were serious in asking for more time, and have not insisted on cutting medical benefits.

"There has never been a proposal to take away free heath care for members or their families," Sloan said. "What we have asked people to understand is that they have an extraordinary benefit compared to other workers and that we need to work together to preserve them."

Sloan also criticized the union for refusing to work out a temporary solution.

"The union is saying how bad a strike will be for the state, yet when given the opportunity to avoid a strike and preserve their health benefits, they don't even want to talk about it," he said.

"This is going to be their responsibility to the extent that people are canceling vacation or travel plans to come to Las Vegas."

In their letter, Sloan and Murphy added:

"Already potential travelers alerted to the threat of a strike are either canceling reservations for Las Vegas visits or making arrangements to visit other destinations.

"Either way, our companies, our employers and the state of Nevada lose. We stand willing to work out the details of this proposal with you as quickly as possible."

But at the Thomas & Mack Center Thursday, the union was in a fighting mood.

The morning strike session began with a tape of the famous words of boxing ring announcer Michael Buffer -- "Let's get ready to rumble" -- blaring over the loud speaker system to a roaring crowd.

Union members stood up and cheered for a couple of minutes before D. Taylor, the union's newly elected secretary-treasurer opened the program.

"We're going to win together," Taylor told the crowd from the podium on the floor of the arena, as one member carrying a large American flag paraded around the floor.

Wilhelm later pointed out the union's top priorities in the negotiations -- preserving the free health care coverage and improving working conditions for some 10,000 union housekeepers. His comments were repeated by a Spanish speaking interpreter for those who didn't speak English.

"Once we open the door to cutting your benefits, it will never stop and it will get worse every year," Wilhelm said.

"Let's be very very clear. No company has yet offered enough money to protect your benefits during our new contract negotiations. No company."

Then Wilhelm asked the crowd: "Are you going to let these corporations wreck your health plan?

Wilhelm said no company also has yet to make a "significant offer" to improve the housekeeping workload.

"We've made up our minds to fight back against abusive workloads in every department, and we're starting that fight in our largest department, housekeeping," he said. "The work load is just too much. Well starting now, we're not going to take it anymore.

"It's a matter of respect. It's a matter of dignity. It's a matter of human decency.

Afterwards, most workers said they voted against authorizing a strike to save their benefits.

"For me personally, this is about the insurance," said Claudette Robinson, 57-year-old Bellagio pantry worker.

Michon Miller, a cocktail waitress at Monte Carlo, said she trusted the judgment of the union's leaders.

"I support my union," she said. "I will support what's right for me."

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