Columnist Jeff German: Seeking peace, not strife, with labor

Friday, May 24, 2002 | 4:04 a.m.

IT WAS TOUCH AND GO for a while, but the contract battle between the Culinary Union and the casino industry is all but over.

Labor peace for another five years is close at hand.

The last of the "Big Four" Strip operators, Mandalay Resort Group and MGM MIRAGE, both have suggested that they likely will reach a tentative agreement with the 50,000-member union as early as today with less than a week to go before the June 1 strike deadline.

That agreement will be the one the union essentially negotiated last week with Park Place Entertainment, Harrah's Entertainment and the Tropicana -- the one that guarantees free medical coverage for all union members and a reduced workload for housekeepers.

It's the one that gives the union its biggest wage and benefits increase in history, nearly a $3.24 hourly increase over five years, on the heels of one of the industry's worst economic downturns, the recession brought on by Sept. 11.

Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE, which together own a dozen megaresorts and make up nearly 45 percent of the union's membership, fought long and hard to persuade their industry rivals that they were giving the union too much.

But in the end, their competitors opted for a chance at labor peace during a period of economic uncertainty, and they decided Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE needed to do the same thing for the sake of the entire community.

And so after today, unless Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE find renewed fighting spirit at the bargaining table, all that will be left for the Culinary Union is mopping up among the lower-end downtown hotels.

John Wilhelm, the union's international vice president and chief negotiator, says he understands several downtown casinos can't afford the Strip deal, and he's ready to make concessions this week, as he tries to beat the June 1 strike deadline.

Political repercussions from the battle on the Strip, however, are likely to remain with us for a long time.

Already there has been speculation about whether the union's longtime political alliance with Mandalay and MGM MIRAGE has been irreparably harmed.

Mike Sloan, the astute senior vice president who handles government relations for Mandalay, has been in the political trenches with Wilhelm in Nevada and Washington for years.

Yet Sloan, with his company's backing, was one of the most vocal hard-liners during the entire five-week negotiating process. He engaged the union in a battle of rhetoric almost daily.

MGM MIRAGE Chairman Terry Lanni, who refrained from talking publicly about the negotiations, also has been close to Wilhelm over the years, even serving with him on the prestigious National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

Yet Lanni's media point man during the talks, Senior Vice President Alan Feldman, once likened the union to terrorists -- an analogy that was particularly hard for the union to accept considering dozens of its New York members were killed in the attacks of Sept. 11.

Feldman, a seasoned corporate communications man, later apologized and said he regretted uttering those words, but they remain embedded in the minds of some Culinary Union leaders with long memories.

Park Place and Harrah's executives, on the other hand, took a low-key approach to the negotiations, and when they agreed to the tentative deal last week, they drew praise from Wilhelm for stepping up to the plate.

It may have been the birth of a new leadership team within the casino industry, as it moves to repair relations with the union in the aftermath of the tough contract talks.

Wilhelm learned that he can turn to Park Place President Tom Gallagher and Harrah's Chairman Phil Satre when the going gets tough.

He's likely to remember his new friends now that the battle on the Strip is all but over.