Jackson confronts Mandalay executives over clash

Friday, May 24, 2002 | 11:36 a.m.

Thrusting himself into the heated Culinary Union contract talks, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Thursday confronted top Mandalay Resort Group executives about their handling of a clash between Circus Circus security officers and workers.

Jackson came away from a half-hour meeting with the executives at Mandalay Bay, the company's corporate headquarters, outraged by their refusal to say whether they would fire the officers and pay restitution to the union members hurt in the May 3 scuffle.

He said the executives, though they repeatedly apologized, displayed an "unusual level of arrogance and indifference" about the incident during the meeting.

And he pledged the resources of his Rainbow/Push Coalition to help Circus Circus pot washer Al Williams, who suffered a separated shoulder and broken wrist in the scuffle, and others file a civil rights lawsuit against the company over its "Gestapo" tactics.

Williams was among a half-dozen Circus Circus workers injured in the employee's dining room when security officers moved in to break up what they believed was a union demonstration involving about 100 people. Mandalay Resort Group has taken a tough stand in its negotiations with the Culinary Union.

"What happened to these workers was unacceptable, barbaric and illegal," Jackson said earlier following a speech to the Coalition of Black Trade Union Unionists at the MGM Grand. "This is humiliation and this is injury. And so the company must pay for that. They must show good faith in making these workers whole."

Jackson, a longtime Culinary Union friend, and an entourage of national labor and civil rights leaders showed up unannounced at Mandalay Bay about 1:45 p.m. and asked to see executives to discuss the Circus Circus incident, which has become a rallying cry for the union during the contract talks.

The group was greeted at the main entrance by Emmett Michaels, Mandalay's vice president of corporate security, and escorted to the second-floor executive offices, where they met inside a board room with Senior Vice President Tony Alamo and other grim-faced corporate officers.

Williams and William Lucy, the president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, were among those in Jackson's company who sat across the board room table from Alamo and the other executives.

"I feel very very bad that this man got hurt," Alamo said in a polite voice. "It was an incident that should have been avoided."

Several times Alamo was asked whether the security officers would be fired, but Alamo repeatedly said the matter was being investigated and he didn't have enough facts to answer that question.

But he added, "We're sitting here because we're concerned about what happened."

When Alamo told Jackson his company has an impeccable corporate reputation within the community and has never been known to do anything improper, the civil rights leader retorted, "That's a put-down."

Later, a still-irked Jackson told Alamo, "What this company needs is a lawsuit and some picket lines, and it's going to get both. We have to tell the world about this."

At one point, Williams, at Jackson's request, explained to Alamo in graphic detail how he was manhandled by security officers during the altercation and embarrassed in front of his co-workers. Alamo listened intently and promised a thorough company probe.

Earlier, Williams told about 1,200 members of the Black Trade Unionists that Circus Circus officers entered the dining room with "rage and anger" and attacked the employees because of their union activities.

"I'm scared to go back to work, but I am going to go back because I know my fellow workers are supporting me," he said.

Williams and two other union members were suspended by the company following the clash, but they since have been reinstated. The union is filing grievances on their behalf and considering its own legal action.

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