Strip workers ready to ratify contract

Friday, May 31, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.

Culinary Union members will get a chance Thursday to approve tentative contract agreements with four major Strip operators that give them their largest ever increase in wages and benefits.

"It's clear the workers are going to ratify the contract," said Glen Arnodo, the union's political director. "They think it's a fabulous contract."

Arnodo said the rank and file negotiating committees for the four companies -- Park Place Entertainment, Harrah's Entertainment, Mandalay Resort Group and MGM MIRAGE -- all have voted unanimously to recommend the contract. The Tropicana negotiating committee also accepted the terms of the contract.

The new deal, which gives workers nearly a $3.24 hourly increase in wages and benefits over five years, covers 75 percent of the union's 50,000 members at 18 resorts.

Arnodo said the ratification meeting, which will take place at the Cashman Center in two shifts, one at 10 a.m. and another at 6 p.m., also will be used to rally support for negotiations with the remaining 17 casinos without new contracts.

"This is much more than a ratification meeting," Arnodo said. "It's an organizing meeting because our contract committees have made a commitment that this struggle is not over until each and every worker has a contract."

Arnodo said workers at the "Big Four" Strip companies and Tropicana also will be asked Thursday to sign up for picket duty if a strike takes place at the other lower-end casinos on July 1.

The union this week extended its strike deadline one month to buy more time to negotiate with the remaining properties, the majority of which are downtown.

The sides appear far apart on the economic issues.

Attorney Gregory Kamer -- who represents Binion's Horseshoe, Four Queens, Fitzgerald's, Union Plaza, Las Vegas Club, El Cortez and the Western -- said this week that his clients can't afford the Strip deal.

"We've got a lot of work do,"' he said. "It's going to be a hard month. I think that the posturing is over, and we're going to have to get down to some serious issues very quickly."

Kamer plans to "open the books" of the seven downtown hotels to the union during a presentation Friday aimed at showing his clients are in poorer financial shape than their Strip counterparts.

A major portion of the $3.24 hourly increase in the Strip agreements goes to the union's $300 million health and welfare fund to protect free medical coverage for its members and families.

On "Face to Face with Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas One Thursday, D. Taylor, the union's secretary-treasurer, reiterated the union's position that it will not accept a second-tier health plan for downtown workers.

Taylor said he was expecting the downtown hotels to make the same contributions as the Strip resorts to the union's health fund.

Kamer responded that his clients don't have the operating revenues to pay that amount, but he suggested it could be accomplished if workers take a cut in wages.

Also on Thursday, the union met with the Boyd Group, which has expiring contracts at the Stardust, Fremont and Main Street Station, but no agreement was reached.

The talks, however, were described as "constructive," and both sides plan to meet again next week.

Negotiations with the Riviera were to take place today.

During the one-month extension, the union, though it can't conduct any work stoppages, still has the right to demonstrate and hand out leaflets outside the casinos.

The union could get support next week from the Detroit-based United Auto Workers.

Some 2,100 delegates to the UAW's constitutional convention will be in Las Vegas Monday through Thursday meeting at the MGM Grand.