Las Vegas Sun

May 16, 2008

Security guards on Strip seek to organize

At Luxor, targeted first, owner MGM Mirage fights back with carrots and sticks

By Michael Mishak

Published Mon, Apr 21, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Updated Mon, Apr 21, 2008 (12:40 p.m.)

Sun Archives

Security guards are trying to organize a union on the Strip, and the move has brought a strong response from casino giant MGM Mirage.

The guards are seeking representation by the International Union of Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America. They complain of inadequate training and unsafe staffing levels, low pay and other ills.

The casinos are fighting back, claiming that guards will get a better deal if they don’t organize. That argument worked 13 years ago, the last time guards mounted a serious organizing effort.

The first test this time will be at the Luxor, where a representation election is scheduled for Friday. Elections at other properties will follow, said Steve Maritas, the union’s director of organizing.

The national union is targeting MGM Mirage, which has a five-year bargaining agreement with the union at the company’s MGM Grand in Detroit. The company agreed not to campaign against the union in Detroit but is taking a tougher stand in Las Vegas.

Management is holding one-on-one meetings with guards at the Luxor. The company is trying to prevent a domino effect at other casinos by conducting mandatory meetings at Mandalay Bay, whose 300 officers compose the company’s single largest security force, Maritas said. (The union filed an election petition for Mandalay Bay guards with the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday.)

Under U.S. labor law, an employer has the right to hold so-called captive audiences during an organizing drive, provided that employees are paid for their time. Employers are precluded from making promises or leveling threats though, and the union says the Luxor is playing dirty. The union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB on Friday, alleging that casino management has threatened to withhold previously scheduled pay raises and other benefits if workers vote for the union.

The complaint also alleges that management offered benefits and promotions to guards who vote against the union and is now soliciting and granting grievances from officers.

An MGM Mirage spokesman said the company, though preferring that guards remain nonunion, respects the right of employees to seek union representation and has conducted itself within the limits of federal labor law.

“Those same laws also allow the company to express its viewpoint and, if necessary, aggressively promote management’s belief that our best relationship with our employees is always face-to-face, without a third party intermediary,” spokesman Gordon Absher said.

The labor board will investigate the union’s claims and set a formal hearing if it finds the charge has merit.

Guards say changes at the properties have been dramatic.

Before the organizing drive, officers say, hiring and overtime freezes left properties understaffed and on-duty guards vulnerable. Cuts were so deep, they say, that a lone guard was sometimes posted on the Luxor casino floor.

Some guards, who have little more than a 6-inch wooden “power stick” with which to fend off attacks and subdue troublemakers, say they felt unsafe. (Guards lost their guns in 2005 because of insurance liability concerns, the union says.) Backup often came from inexperienced, part-time guards.

Since the election filing, however, MGM Mirage has reinstated overtime and boosted staffing levels, and is now offering officer-training classes, Maritas said. Battered patrol vehicles were replaced last week, and security booths are being cleaned, he said.

Indeed, security guards say corporate executives are paying unprecedented attention. Luxor management held a focus group meeting last month to gauge the concerns of officers.

The meeting prompted memo from Luxor President Felix Rappaport, who praised the officers for their dedication and apologized for overlooking their concerns.

Rappaport, however, said that most of the issues were not of a kind that a union can negotiate.

He urged guards to give the company another chance.

Maritas, a feisty, chain-smoking organizer who grew up in the South Bronx, reveled in the response. On Tuesday he was holding court with about two-dozen guards at the Laughing Jackalope Bar & Grill, a no-frills joint attached to a low-rise motel across from Mandalay Bay, while an Elvis impersonator and a few ironworkers partook of the pizza he ordered for the security crew.

“These guys are coming off their thrones because we are now a threat to their empire,” Maritas said.

Guards interviewed by the Sun said they were shaken by MGM Mirage’s announcement last week that it was cutting 400 manager positions companywide. (Officers were granted anonymity so they could speak freely. A confidentiality agreement bars guards from speaking about security matters publicly.)

Job protection was at the top of their wish list. Guards also hope to win seniority rights, a better internal promotion policy, a grievance and arbitration process and a company pension plan. They also want wage uniformity across properties.

“Everything else is gravy,” Maritas said.

(Editor's note: This story has been corrected. Gordon Absher's name was incorrectly spelled in an earlier version.)

Discussion: 6 comments so far…

  1. By jenna
    4/21/08 at 3:45 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    Abscher?

  2. By mikeg
    4/21/08 at 9:06 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    Looks like the mere suggestion of a union has already brought positive changes for the security guards.

    Those guys deserve to be treated better by a company that made $872 million in the most recent three month financial quarter:

    http://www.rttnews.com/sp/todaystop.asp?...

  3. By UNLVStud
    4/21/08 at 3:34 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Good for them. They should Unionize especially since so many of their jobs are at risk anyway with the "reorganization" that the MGM has been making in the last few days.

  4. By vegasm
    4/21/08 at 10:33 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Ask any casino owner, if there was one group he could eliminate, a common answer is: Security. Security is close to, if not at the bottom, of casino pay scales. At some casinos, base pay rates have not increased in 8 – 10 years.

    Some owners come right out and say they hate security, wish they could eliminate it and just let insurance cover any losses. Security is generally the least respected position in the casino (oh, we get letters telling us how great we handled a situation or event, but accolades are never followed up with pay incentives).

    Casinos have a pecking order, if you will, of employee ‘value added’ status, in other words, does a particular position generate revenue, or drain from profits. Dealers and hosts generate revenue, where security, housekeeping and janitorial subtract from revenue.

    On the surface, anyway.

    Casinos cannot remain open without security to perform certain functions per gaming rules; so, no security – no casino. Sounds like a revenue impact to me!

    Imagine a casino with no, or insufficient, security: hookers, pimps, pickpockets, credit claimers, rapists etc. allowed to roam the casino and hotel floors unmolested.

    Drunks passed out, vomiting, homeless people begging or setting up ‘home’ on the casino floor, mental cases wandering among guests, medical emergencies left unattended until paramedics arrive, juveniles gambling (and the casino incurring the fines when Gaming cites them) …

    How long do you think said property would continue to attract guests? If a property cannot sell its rooms and fill its floor with gamblers and drinkers, how can it generate revenue?

    Security has a direct impact on casino revenue.

    Unionization is a concept many years past due.

    Personally, I think there should be two forces in a casino: in house security to do chip fills, escorts etc., and Casino Police, which would be a sworn organization (similar to CCSD Police) with limited, but real, powers. Guests have no idea how much crime goes unpunished because Metro is too busy and casino security have no real power or authority.

    The Luxor isn’t the only strip property to have, at times, only a single officer available for calls. Even though a casino can be sued if a patron suffers harm, and it can be shown insufficient security contributed to said harm, any judgment a jury may award can be recouped in about 10 minutes on a good night at a busy casino.

  5. By junjun
    4/22/08 at 4:47 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    Absurd! Just what we need, another "union". Gimme a break!

    JJ
    www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

  6. By VegasSec78
    4/22/08 at 2:10 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    A union would be nice for Security Officers (not Guards by the way) and the mere threat of a Union has opened the eyes of upper management at MGM to the important job they perform. Majority of the time, Security is thought of as the bastard step child who is only appreciated when they're needed (Drunk threatening a Pit supervisor or destroying Casino property).

    The more important issue that needs to be addressed is the lack of training the officers receive prior to starting or once on the casino floor. VegasM hit it right on the head that there should be two sets officers. One to handle the mundane casino floor duties of table fills and escorts. The other group, trained officers to respond to emergency situations like Heart Attacks (which most large Casinos have EMTs on duty) or crimes against the Casino and Guests.

    Our local law enforcement is far to busy to respond to every crime call on the Strip or the local casinos. Having a trained Security Force (which should receive some type of certification through POST or a state run training program) would greatly benefit the strained Police departments that have to respond to Casinos every time they're needed. A Casino Police Force could complete crime reports, cite offenders and handle escalated situations that many untrained security officers may be unable to control. Another benefit will be that it will remove some of the liability from the casinos because the officers were trained by a regulated State Agency and should be protected like Peace Officers now.

    If you think that our crime statistics are bad now think of all the incidents that Casino Security handles on a daily basis that never goes reported because the police fail to respond in a reasonable time or the casino guest is from out of town and doesn't want to deal with the hassle of coming back. These crimes are not just run of the mill crimes like being drunk in public or a simple battery. Try burglary, fraud, robbery, Battery with deadly weapon and so on.

    A union is a start but it will only be beneficial if it leads to better training or ultimately Casino Police at every property.

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