Columnist Jeff German: Strike: Warm-up for the big fight

Friday, Nov. 5, 2004 | 4:11 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

WEEKEND EDITION

November 6 - 7, 2004

Now that the bitter month-long casino strike in Atlantic City is over, there's a feeling that both sides avoided a catastrophe.

"We were heading down the road to mutually assured destruction," says local Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor, who participated in the contract talks. "There would have been irreparable harm to both sides for years and years."

And so the union decided to save its fight for another day to get collective bargaining agreements that expire simultaneously in Atlantic City and Las Vegas in 2007.

It agreed to a five-year, rather than a three-year, contract in Atlantic City to secure what it calls the best wage and benefits package it has ever negotiated for its members there.

The contract gives casino workers a 28.3 percent wage hike over five years, as well as free health care.

Casinos also agreed to stop hiring nonunion workers at new restaurants, clear up seniority and promotion guidelines for employees and allow a larger number of union shop stewards on the properties.

Management, primarily Harrah's Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment, which own five of the seven casinos hit by the strike, was pleased with the contract, as well.

"We've always thought these folks would be better off with a longer deal," Harrah's spokesman Gary Thompson says.

"We're glad this is over."

Both sides bought labor peace in Atlantic City for the next five years, but there's no guarantee that will mean contract talks in Las Vegas in 2007 will be any less contentious.

"We have a lot of work to do," Taylor says. "We have to figure out how we repair a relationship that was strained with the companies."

The union demonstrated that it was willing to sustain a long strike if necessary, and the companies proved they were capable of surviving one.

Going in to the Atlantic City negotiations, union leaders were convinced they needed the power of their members in both cities to bargain effectively in Las Vegas with a Harrah's-Caesars conglomerate. The two companies are seeking regulatory approval for a merger that will make them the world's largest gaming operation.

While the Culinary Union didn't come away from Atlantic City strike with the clout it wanted, the experience was a chance for the new and improved union to flex its muscles and take advantage of its larger national resources.

The union, which doubled its membership this summer when it merged with UNITE, the wealthy textile and laundry workers union, took out newspaper ads in the New York Times and ran radio spots in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore to promote its position during the strike.

It also brought in union leaders, organizers and members from Las Vegas and other parts of the country to participate in the walkout.

"We acted and functioned for the first time like a national gaming union," Taylor says. "They'll have to think long and hard about whether they want a citywide strike in three years."

A ranking casino executive following the Atlantic City walkout from the sidelines says this is one of those rare labor disputes that is resolved to everyone's satisfaction -- at least for the moment.

"This could have been very bad for both sides, but it sounds like they grudgingly let it end in a tie," the executive says. "They postponed (the fighting) until the next time."

That would be in 2007.