Fed-up Culinary talks tough, talks strike

Michael J. Mishak

Saturday, July 28, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

The most dreaded word in labor relations is rearing its ugly head: strike.

For the second time in five years, the Culinary Union, frustrated by stalled contract negotiations with MGM Mirage and wary of upcoming talks with downtown casino operators, is mobilizing members for possible walkouts.

Tens of thousands of union members plan to gather on Sept. 12 at Cashman Field to vote on whether to authorize strikes at various properties if bargainers can't reach new agreements, Culinary leaders said Friday.

Current five-year contracts, affecting about 50,000 hotel and restaurant service employees, expired June 1, but the union and the casino operators signed extensions that allow both sides to continue negotiating.

The Culinary reached a settlement last month with Harrah's Entertainment, which employs about 15,000 members. Labor leaders say that deal, which included the union's largest-ever wage and benefits package, set the tone for MGM Mirage - and other Strip operators, with whom the union is negotiating.

Under the Harrah's contract, pay raises come in the form of fixed hourly increases spread over the five-year agreement. The deal also continues to give the Culinary an easy "card check" method of organizing workplaces, including those managed by third-party operators. Card check organizing means an employee can express a desire to form a bargaining unit merely by signing a card, rather than voting in an election.

Labor leaders said the call for a strike vote was prompted largely by the MGM Mirage talks. With 10 Strip properties and about 21,000 Culinary employees, MGM Mirage is the largest player in town. The company and the union are dug in on pay and benefits, and especially on the rules that will govern organizing workers at some new properties.

Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor said the union has met with MGM Mirage 32 times since the talks began in March, both in subcommittee meetings and main-table bargaining sessions. But he said the two sides have made little progress on big-ticket items, such as card check organizing rights at nongaming parts of CityCenter, the company's $7 billion development being built on the Strip.

"With the prosperity and growth going on in Las Vegas, workers should not be put in this position," Taylor said. "But we accept that nothing is ever given in life. You have to earn it."

He added: "No one here is trigger happy. But we're committed to whatever action is necessary to win our struggle."

MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said the union's move for a strike vote was expected, especially given that both sides have been away from the bargaining table for more than a month.

"We've made a pledge to our employees that we're prepared to help them live the Las Vegas dream, and we've made a proposal to the union with a contract that addresses every single point that the union has raised," he said. "Unfortunately, we have not had a response to that proposal across the bargaining table."

MGM Mirage says both sides have made significant headway, citing 80 tentative agreements on issues such as establishing a career ladder for employee development. Also, the company says it is not challenging the union's right to organize CityCenter's centerpiece casino, which includes about 6,000 union jobs.

Feldman urged the union to return to the talks.

In 2002, MGM Mirage, along with Mandalay Resort Group, took the hardest line in talks, particularly on the union's health care plan. But hopes of a united front disappeared when, one week after the union threatened its first strike in 18 years, Park Place Entertainment and Harrah's caved .

After all, the public display of union solidarity was powerful. Nearly 20,000 members, slightly less than half the union's total membership, packed the Thomas & Mack Center for a Strip-wide strike vote in what became the turning point in that year's negotiations. MGM and Mandalay saw the terms agreed to by their competitors as too generous, but agreed to similar terms within a week.

The union's last strike was in 2002 at the Golden Gate. Workers picketed the downtown casino for eight days after owner Mark Brandenburg refused to take the same deal as two other downtown operators. On the brink of closing, Brandenburg signed a settlement.

Before that, Culinary workers struck Binion's Horseshoe for 9 1/2 months in 1989, ultimately winning card check rights at the downtown property. That key battle was followed by the Frontier strike, which lasted more than six years. Still, all of this paled in comparison - and impact - with a Strip walkout in 1984, which lasted for 75 days and included scuffles and arrests .

For their part, longtime workers at MGM Mirage and downtown casinos, aware of the city's labor history, said they were hopeful settlements could be reached - but that given the pace and tone of the MGM talks, they wanted the option to strike.

"MGM Mirage is a huge corporation," said Vikki Gaskill, a cocktail waitress at the Mirage since 1989. "We don't see why we can't have what the Harrah's workers have."

Judy Bagley, a cashier at Fitzgeralds and a casino worker for 27 years, said downtown employees feel uneasy about the lack of a new contract. "Management always says we're their greatest assets," she said. "But when it comes to negotiations it feels like we're their greatest liability."

The mood at Harrah's is markedly more upbeat, yet workers there are pledging solidarity with their MGM Mirage counterparts. "The people at Harrah's feel peace," said Adolfo Zarate, a 10-year porter at Bally's. "But we can see the other side of the street. We're the ones doing the hard work and they don't want to share."

The Culinary opened talks with the Riviera on Wednesday, and will do the same with the Stratosphere and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville in the Flamingo next week. Negotiations with the Las Vegas Hilton and the Sahara will follow.

Still, MGM Mirage is at the forefront of union leaders' minds , and the company has dominated the Culinary's conversations with Democratic presidential candidates as they have campaigned in Nevada. At least two White House hopefuls, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards, have vowed to picket with the union if necessary. And Taylor is preparing the campaign rhetoric.

"A strike - if it ever came about - wouldn't be because the company couldn't afford the package or because we're not good partners," Taylor said. "It would be a reflection of everything that's wrong with this country."