Draw a line in the sand, Biden urges Culinary

Michael J. Mishak, Las Vegas Sun

Saturday, June 9, 2007 | 7:32 a.m.

In the same pointed language he has used to criticize President Bush on Iraq, Sen. Joe Biden fired a shot at the administration Friday for "waging a war on labor's house."

The remark came at a campaign stop with a few hundred workers of the Culinary Union.

Biden, who is among the second-tier candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination, said the Bush administration had tried to rig the National Labor Relations Board in the past six years, and sought to undermine middle - class America further with anti-union policies.

"It's time to draw a line in the sand," Biden said. "I like to play offense. It's time to go on the offensive."

He said the Las Vegas local's thriving membership should stand as a national example, and then called on workers to stand up and organize.

"I'm going to be the best friend to labor since Franklin Roosevelt, if I get there," Biden said.

But besides briefly touting the "best labor record of anyone running in either party," Biden's remarks on a number of union issues could have easily fit into the speeches of his Democratic rivals.

And by Friday, Culinary members were well versed in the campaign arguments.

After all, Biden was the fifth Democratic presidential candidate to parade through the Culinary's union hall in downtown Las Vegas in a month's time.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson touted his labor bona fides before union members last month. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards visited last week, as the union's contract deadline loomed and then expired.

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 Union will provide ready-made organizational muscle to whichever candidate it endorses, but how the union will choose is unclear.

All the candidates are in broad agreement on issues important to the Culinary: organizing rights, guaranteed health and pension benefits, and immigration reform.

Nevertheless, Biden struck a chord with workers who were fired up after a morning of in-house demonstrations at Strip casinos owned by MGM Mirage and Harrah's Entertainment, the two companies with whom the Culinary is negotiating.

His performance had all the markings and flair of a man who has spent 35 years in the Senate. For the most part, Biden defied his reputation as a talker, keeping his remarks brief. He worked the crowd like a stand-up comedian, traipsing through the aisles, singling out audience members and cracking jokes.

Although he didn't break any new policy ground, Biden did offer specifics.

Fielding a question about executive compensation, Biden said he would repeal the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which gives companies "safe harbor" from liability regarding statements about future earnings, in addition to other provisions designed to discourage lawsuits by unhappy investors.

Enacted in 1996, despite a veto by President Clinton, the bill's primary sponsor in the Senate was Sen. Chris Dodd, one of Biden's Democratic rivals.

Biden also urged union workers and shareholders, or "white - collar, college white boys," as he called them, to unite to demand greater control over how much chief executives are paid, and called for more transparency in corporate disclosures.

He got big applause for saying that joining a union should be no more difficult than registering to vote.

Biden also called for greater corporate responsibility and said the tax code should be overhauled to discourage companies from prizing profit over growth.

"That's not an answer to building America," Biden said of private equity firms, not unlike those entering the Las Vegas casino market. Those firms often buy companies, leverage the deals with debt and then sell the profitable parts.