Raise? Don’t you know that we’re in a recession?

By Richard N. Velotta

Monday, June 22, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Proposed pay raises for 350 union workers employed by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority are raising eyebrows because of the recession.

The authority’s board of directors will consider a new five-year contract in July that includes an across-the-board pay increase totaling 3.5 percent over two years, with a reopening of negotiations for the last three.

Two businesspeople on the board who will cast votes are skeptical that the proposal will fly in a time when many businesses and governments are freezing salaries, canceling bonuses and laying off employees.

The workers are represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1107.

The board will consider the 55-page agreement, ratified by the union in April, on July 14.

“There aren’t many businesses out there that haven’t had to lay off workers, cut pay or cut benefits,” said Kara Kelley, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and one of the 14 members of the convention authority’s board. “Some businesses actually are thriving in this economy, but everybody else is freezing salaries and cutting where they can so that they can hold onto the jobs they’ve created.”

Kelley acknowledges that the employees in question work hard, but she said companies offering raises in the recession are the exception, not the norm.

“I think the unions are out of touch with what’s happening in the real world and for them to suggest that they not give up something is unreasonable,” said Kelley, who said she voluntarily took a 10 percent pay cut and other chamber employee salaries are frozen.

There are few changes in benefits or policies under the new deal. The 350 operations, maintenance, landscaping, custodial and security personnel have been working without a contract since last summer.

The convention authority’s three-member compensation committee is forwarding the contract to the full board without a recommendation because new board representatives from the Henderson and North Las Vegas city councils will replace two committee members — the chairman, Henderson Mayor James Gibson, and North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon — next month.

Chuck Bowling, a casino executive who is the third member of the compensation committee and will have a vote on the contract in July, said it’s a tough balancing act to maintain good employee relationships with those working for the convention authority while urging everybody to make sacrifices in the down economy.

“We’ve taken an oath to be fiscally responsible and today we’ve encountered financial issues we never dreamed we would have to deal with,” Bowling said. “But it’s definitely a balancing act. We’ve got to be good stewards of our tax dollars, yet compensate people as fairly as possible.”

The pay increases would cost the authority $78,900 for the retroactive six months of fiscal year 2009 and $199,600 for fiscal 2010.

Convention authority management and executives wouldn’t benefit from the contract. They’re in the midst of a year-old salary freeze and there were no merit increases or bonuses allocated in the new budget approved by the board last month.

But 87 nonunion employees could get raises if the agreement with the SEIU is approved. Historically, the board has authorized the same cost-of-living increases to the non-bargaining employees, which include human resources, information technology, internal audit and finance department staffs, as they have with union workers.

Those pay increases would cost the authority $88,300.

Kelley noted that elected officials outnumber business representatives on the board 8-6. While union representatives often have the ear of elected officials, Kelley said most government entities have been seeking concessions from unions in the recession and understand the board’s dilemma in considering a pay increase.

If the convention authority board does not approve the contract, the issue would go to binding arbitration.