D. is not always for ‘diplomatic’ at Culinary

Monday, July 9, 2007 | 7:10 a.m.

The Culinary Union's negotiations with MGM Mirage are mired.

They have dug in on pay, benefits and organizing rights, that much is known. But neither side is telling the full story in public, nor could they be expected to do so.

What is known is that the talks themselves - those days across the bargaining table - are unpleasant. What is also known is that on the union side, the mood and the atmospherics are different from past negotiations.

Picture this: On one side is the MGM Mirage team of three dozen people. On the other are 500 union members, arrayed behind the tip of their spear, D. Taylor, the Culinary's local leader and chief bargainer, who sits at the table.

Doesn't sound very sociable, does it.

Taylor's style is unlike that of the man who represented the union at the table for many years, John Wilhelm, who left to become co-president of the Culinary's parent union, Unite Here.

Casino industry insiders speak about Wilhelm with reverence. One described him as the "Winston Churchill of the American labor movement."

While able to match Taylor's rhetoric, both in public and at the bargaining table, Wilhelm was viewed as the consummate backroom negotiator, someone with a keen understanding of the labor-management dynamic. He could be tough when he needed, and diplomatic when needed.

Taylor is steely and more aggressive than Wilhelm, which is not to suggest that he's less effective. Just different. Winston Churchill helped win a war. So did George Patton.

The bargaining sessions are closed to reporters, but Taylor's style was on public display in the caustic remarks he made about MGM Mirage when the union hosted Democratic presidential candidates in the spring.

During those contract briefings, he cast the negotiations as an economic struggle between workers and the wealthy - and, in a broader sense, "everything that is right and wrong in this country."

"What's right is what we're doing," Taylor said. "What's wrong is what the corporations are doing."

MGM Mirage is openly airing its frustrations with Taylor's style. The company provided a rare glimpse into the talks last month when it released an internal memo, originally drafted for management, focusing on what it referred to as the union's flat refusal to answer questions about the company's economic proposal on six separate occasions during its last meeting.

MGM Mirage's queries, it said, were refused or deflected with no explanation.

"Among our MGM Mirage negotiating team we have literally decades of experience in negotiating collective bargaining agreements," wrote Cynthia Kiser Murphey, vice president of human resources for MGM Mirage. "None of us have experienced anything like this."

The incident irked some company executives, who found themselves longing for Wilhelm.

On the other side, members of the union's negotiating committee interviewed by the Sun described Taylor as firm yet calm under pressure and attentive to members' needs. A union man from college on.

Raised by a single mother in Williamsburg, Va., Taylor worked his way through Georgetown University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in foreign service. His job was waiting tables at Harvey's Restaurant in Washington.

He soon found himself in the position of shop steward at the legendary restaurant, and after graduation, he started work as a union organizer. His introduction to Las Vegas was as a picket captain in the 1984 citywide strike.

In an interview for this story, Taylor dismissed the criticism as a distraction from the union's big-ticket items, which he said remain unresolved. At his secretary's desk sat a sign that read: "Las Vegas Dream UNDER ATTACK!" Pictures of striking workers framed the room.

"There are a lot of myths out there," Taylor said. "The history of the casino industry is one of partnership and dispute. Negotiations have never been easy in this town. Nothing has ever been solved here without struggle."

As evidence of his negotiating skill, Taylor cited the union's recent settlement with Harrah's Entertainment. Those talks, which started a month later than the MGM Mirage negotiations, resulted in the union's largest-ever wage and benefits package. The deal also included a number of job security provisions, such as severance protections in the case of redevelopment and "card check" organizing rights at joint-venture properties.

"Harrah's settled, and they're the largest gaming company in the world," Taylor said.

If anything has changed the dynamic this year, Taylor said, it's the consolidation in the Las Vegas casino market.

MGM Mirage bought Mandalay Resort Group for $7.9 billion in 2005, for instance, becoming far and away the largest employer of union help in town.

"The industry is changing, and I think that what's at stake is the job security and advancement workers are entitled to given the record prosperity of these companies," Taylor said.

Wilhelm called MGM's criticism "silly propaganda" and noted that casino companies launched similar complaints against him for his handling of the first few rounds of contract negotiations in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he and Taylor were working to rebuild the local after a period of decline.

"D. is totally committed to the membership and demonstrates an excellent ability to work in a constructive way with employers who want to be constructive," Wilhelm said. "He has taken our union in Las Vegas and our relationship with the major employers far beyond anything I ever accomplished."

Under Taylor's leadership, the union waged an aggressive campaign to get third-party restaurant operators in casinos to sign Culinary contracts, and it established the Culinary Training Academy and the Citizenship Project , which helps people apply for citizenship .

"No two people are the same," Wilhelm said. "But I don't think that on either side of the bargaining table personality dictates the results. What dictates results is how focused people are on creating win-win settlements."