Taylor says offer ‘good step, but falls short’

Tuesday, May 21, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

Culinary Union leaders were cool Monday to a new five-year contract proposal by two major Strip operators but did not reject it with a looming June 1 strike deadline.

D. Taylor, the union's newly elected secretary-treasurer, said union negotiating committees for both companies, Mandalay Resort Group and MGM MIRAGE, would have to take a look at the offer this week before a decision was made.

"It's a good step, but it falls short," Taylor said. "On one level, they made an encouraging proposal on housekeeping, but on another level, the economics, certainly that would not protect our health care the first year and in the out years."

Union leaders scheduled a Sunday negotiating session with Mandalay Resort Group and MGM MIRAGE, which have taken the hardest line of the "Big Four" Strip operators during the heated contract talks.

But the union is giving the other two major companies, Park Place Entertainment and Harrah's Entertainment, which have kept a lower profile during the negotiations, a chance to reach an agreement first.

Those two companies have made offers that will keep the union's struggling health and welfare fund afloat and guarantee free health care for workers the first year of the contact, Taylor said.

The companies have offered to meet the union's demands of an increase of 65 cents per hour for each employee in health benefits the first year. Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE have offered 57 cents.

Talks with Park Place will take place Wednesday, and the union will sit down with Harrah's Thursday.

The union is seeking a two-year deal because of uncertain economic conditions in the aftermath of Sept. 11, but three of the Big Four companies, Mandalay, MGM MIRAGE and Harrah's want five-year collective bargaining agreements. Park Place has offered a 32-month contract.

Mandalay Senior Vice President Mike Sloan said this morning that he was pleased the union was considering his company's new offer.

"We're encouraged that they expressed an interest in our proposal, which we certainly believe they should because it's a very significant proposal economically," he said. "Now it's time for people to act responsibly and recognize there is a limit to our ability to pay."

Sloan also expressed frustration that the union seemed determined to meet with Park Place and Harrah's before Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE.

"Between now and the time we meet on Sunday, we can only hope that our colleagues in the industry recognize the challenges facing Las Vegas and the state of Nevada," he said.

Though both sides still are apart, Taylor said he believed agreements could be reached with all 35 casinos involved in the negotiations by May 31, when the current five-year contract expires. Union members last week authorized a June 1 walkout if a new contract can't be signed by then.

The Mandalay Resort Group and MGM MIRAGE offer of a 57 cent increase in health benefits the first year is up from from their previous proposal of 50 cents. The union has said it needs 65 cents to keep its $300 million health and welfare fund on solid financial footing this year.

In the next year, the two companies are offering a 53 cent increase that the union can allocate toward its health fund, pension fund or wages. They have proposed a similar 56 cent increase the third year, 58 cents the fourth year and 60 cents the fifth year.

The union has been asking for a 75 cent increase per employee that it can spend on the health and pension funds or wages the second year of its two-year proposal.

Though Park Place and Harrah's have met the union's demand of 65 cents the first year, they have offered 55 cents the second year.

Taylor, meanwhile, would not say what was encouraging about the Mandalay-MGM MIRAGE proposal on the housekeeping issue. But the two companies said in their offer they were willing to abide by the union's demand of allowing guest room attendants to wear long pants.

Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE also said they were prepared to ease the workload of housekeepers, which escalated after Sept. 11.

Heavy workload and job stress were cited Monday in a new academic study, funded by the union, that suggested Las Vegas housekeepers were less healthy than their counterparts in San Francisco.

The study, directed by Dr. Niklas Krause, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, was made public by the union to call attention to the union's demand to improve working conditions for Las Vegas housekeepers during the negotiations.

Krause, who conducted a similar study in San Francisco in 1998, examined the work place of guest room attendants at five Strip hotels.

A Cornell University professor hired by the casino industry disputed Monday Krause's Las Vegas findings that working conditions were solely responsible for the health problems of housekeepers here.

"These people have general life demands placed on them that this survey doesn't point out," said Alan Hedge, an expert on work environments.

Hedge, however, said the study does point out problems within the work environment that casinos could address.