BREAKING: Construction workers to walk off CityCenter site

By Alexandra Berzon

Monday, June 2, 2008 | 9:20 p.m.

Safety In Action

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http://www.lasvegassun.com/videos/2008/jun/03/321/

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Construction workers will walk off the job at CityCenter at midnight tonight if the general contractor, Perini Building Company, does not follow through on steps to improve safety, union leaders said today. Flanked by nearly 30 local union leaders, Steve Ross, executive secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building Trades Council, announced at a press conference this afternoon that in a meeting this morning union leaders had unanimously voted to demand that Perini agree to pay for additional safety training for workers, allow national union researchers to examine root causes of safety problems on the site, and allow union leaders full access to the work site.

Construction workers at the $9.2 billion MGM Mirage CityCenter project are expected to walk off the job at midnight in a disagreement over safety at the site, union officials said late tonight.

Union leaders affiliated with the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council agreed that workers will walk off the job because of safety concerns and the lack of proper response from the site's general contractor, Perini Building Company, according to Steve Redlinger a consultant for the council.

Workers will picket in front of CityCenter until an agreement is reached, Redlinger said.

Perini representatives did not return phone calls from the Sun.

On Saturday, operating engineer Dustin Tarter became the sixth man to die at CityCenter and the 11th construction death in 18 months on the Las Vegas Strip.

Steve Ross, secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building Trades Council, announced at a news conference this afternoon that in a meeting that morning union leaders had unanimously voted to demand that Perini agree to pay for additional safety training for workers, allow national union researchers to examine root causes of safety problems on the site, and allow union leaders full access to the work site.

Ross and Redlinger said that Perini had agreed informally to the council's demands in previous conversations. But the Council was waiting for the contractor to officially sign papers to put the plan into action.

Negotiations between the Council and Perini went on into the evening tonight but were cut off and will not resume until Tuesday morning.

The Building Trades Council encompasses every union tradesman at CityCenter other than carpenters, according to Redlinger. Redlinger was not sure whether or not carpenters would join in the walkout and the union could not be reached this evening.