Letter: Union finally wins a round in Las Vegas

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 | 6:56 a.m.

Wynn Las Vegas casino dealers sent shock waves through labor/management relations when they voted to unionize. Employees are so used to being browbeaten by big business and the press they still can't believe they won. What happened? Could there actually be hope for workers to regain some power over their lives?

Apparently what happened is that the dealers found a window in the mass media monopoly, a communication channel that would tell their side. Big corporations have owned our sources of information for years - newspapers, radio, television and news networks.

These networks depend on selling their advertising to other big corporations, resulting in a right - wing bias. They are anti-labor, anti-tax, anti-government rules and regulations, anti-government programs, anti-public education, anti-anything that helps anyone but the corporate heads and the stock market that they wheel and deal in. The dealers discovered corporate executives haven't gained complete control of the Internet (not yet) and got their side told.

Big business first weakened unions by convincing employees that "right to work laws" were good for them. Next they began moving factories to cheap labor countries, rendering unions virtually powerless except in service industries that can't be moved (construction, transportation, housekeeping, landscaping, etc.). This has resulted in loss of middle - income jobs by the millions. There must be a better way to run capitalism in a democracy. Maybe the dealers discovered a way. Judging by history, greed will lead to money and power taking over that medium , too. So labor will need to work fast while it can still get its side told.

Perhaps this time labor unions will be wise enough to seek shares in companies and profits, rather than higher and higher wages. That would put labor and management on the same team - dependent on inventions and efficiencies of the company for success. Not likely to happen though. It might lead to the discovery that employees contribute as much to those factors as managers.

Paul Gwin, Las Vegas