Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 | 11:37 a.m.
Members of the Operating Engineers Local 501 voted Thursday to authorize the union to strike at three Mandalay Resort Group properties if the company doesn't rescind a two-tier wage proposal.
The 320 workers perform maintenance functions at the Luxor, Circus Circus and Excalibur. The union doesn't represent workers at the Mandalay properties Monte Carlo or Mandalay Bay.
The strike authorization comes after the workers rejected a two-tier wage proposal by the company in July, George Scott, business representative of the union, said. The members have worked under a contract extension since the five-year contract expired March 31.
Although the workers have voted to strike if necessary, the company and the union have a negotiation session set for Oct. 5 with a back-up session scheduled for Oct. 15, Scott said.
"Negotiations have bogged down. They haven't changed their position since July when we rejected their offer," Scott said. The union must give a five-day warning in writing to the company before striking.
Mike Sloan, senior vice president of Mandalay Resort Group, declined to discuss the proposal.
"We'll discuss our collective bargaining offers at the bargaining tables," Sloan said.
He said the company is prepared for a strike if one takes place, but that the company expects to resolve the issue.
"It's not uncommon for unions to take a strike vote as a tactic. We certainly are prepared for any contingencies," Sloan said.
In the two-tier wage proposal, new workers at the Mandalay Resort Group properties would make $3 less than existing workers at those properties, and apprentices would start by making 60 percent of that. The journeymen workers currently make on average $21 an hour.
Scott said other properties have agreed to the union's Strip agreement that offers a $4.30 increase in wages and benefits over the life of the contract. The members want that package, which would result in the workers making $25.30 in wages and benefits by the end of the contract.
Properties that have settled with the union include Tropicana, Harrah's Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Hilton and all of Caesars Entertainment Inc.'s properties except Paris Las Vegas, which is on another contract. Other properties the union has separate contracts with include the Stardust, MGM Grand and the Stratosphere. The union represents 1,600 workers in Las Vegas. Local 501 also has members in Los Angeles.
Jim McLaughlin, the union's business manager, said the union can't accept the proposal because other properties would expect the same.
"They say they'll have to cut costs, but their competition is paying the same rates. They've been our best employer, now all of a sudden they want to fight. We can't let them have it. If we do it will destroy the rest of the relationships on the Strip," McLaughlin said.
Members voting at the union's hall on Deauville Street Thursday afternoon said they were in favor of a strike if the company doesn't rescind its two-tier proposal.
"This has really been a slap in the face," Joe Bosze, a union member who works at the Luxor and a welding instructor with the union's apprenticeship training program, said. "How do they expect new guys to come to us with talent? It's an insult."
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