Future weighs heavy in Culinary talks

Michael J. Mishak

Thursday, May 3, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Negotiations between the Culinary Union and MGM Mirage are stalled over just one issue: whether about 800 new jobs at two CityCenter hotels will be covered, sources close to the talks say.

At issue is the union's right to organize workers at the two boutique, nongaming hotels at CityCenter, the company's $7 billion development being built in the heart of the Strip. Those hotels - Mandarin Oriental and the Harmon Hotel & Residences - will be developed and owned by MGM Mirage but managed by third parties.

The Culinary wants the organizing clause in its current contract to extend to "all the new MGM Mirage properties, joint ventures and auxiliary entities," but the company opposes that language, saying it would bind the hands of its outside operators, sources said.

The union currently has card check-neutrality agreements with all the major gaming companies. Under the agreement, employers must recognize the Culinary once a majority of workers have signed cards specifying their support for the union.

The alternative, which prevails nearly everywhere in the nation, requires workers to vote on the issue in an election, providing time for companies to campaign against the union.

Current five-year contracts, affecting about 50,000 hotel and restaurant service employees, expire June 1. About 21,000 of those workers are employed by MGM Mirage.

MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said that about 6,000 of the 12,000 new jobs at CityCenter would be covered under the Culinary contract, and that the company is not challenging the union's right to represent workers at the facilities MGM Mirage operates.

By contrast, the number of positions at Mandarin Oriental and Harmon Hotel & Residences, for instance, is relatively small, about 400 jobs each, he said. The Culinary, Feldman added, would not be barred from seeking card check agreements with the third parties individually.

For the Culinary, however, the issue isn't just those jobs. It's the future.

Labor leaders are looking ahead - and at MGM Mirage in particular. The company announced a pair of land deals last month, worth a combined $575 million, that will give it enough space to develop a project on the scale of CityCenter near Circus Circus at the north end of the Strip.

MGM Mirage intends to seek outside financial and strategic partners for the project.

Through its contract negotiations, the Culinary seeks to ensure any future hotel and service industry jobs remain in union hands, regardless of third-party operating agreements.

Casino operators have increasingly turned to outside firms to run restaurants and nightclubs, and the Culinary has fought to represent the workers in those businesses with varying degrees of success in recent years.

On CityCenter, the union is standing firm, hoping to close a loophole that would help companies circumvent organized labor in Las Vegas. At stake is the union's thriving membership.

With four weeks left before the contract expires, Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor said the MGM Mirage talks, despite starting early, have yielded little progress, with big issues like card check neutrality sucking up all the oxygen.

MGM Mirage offered a different view.

Feldman said that both sides were working through the big-ticket items and that the company expects to reach a deal before this month's deadline.