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Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009 | 2 a.m.
A rendering shows the 303,000-square-foot city hall proposed for First Street and Clark Avenue, at a cost estimated at $145 million.
Sun Archives
Oscar Goodman
The proposed peace pact between Las Vegas and the Culinary Union — until recently the most intractable of political enemies — appears to offer a victory to both sides.
Yes, the Culinary lost in the sense that it has been unable to stop the new city hall project the union has claimed is a significant waste of taxpayer dollars.
But the union has all along had another, arguably more significant, goal — ensuring that workers at future downtown hotels and casinos have the right to have the union represent them.
On that count, through the agreement’s “labor peace ordinance,” the Culinary clearly won.
The goal of city leaders through this yearlong ordeal was simpler. Led by Mayor Oscar Goodman, they were working to quash any effort to hinder downtown redevelopment plans generally, including the new city hall.
By those standards, the city also clearly won.
Some City Council opposition remains, but on a final vote at the council’s meeting Wednesday the project is expected to pass.
There’s nothing in the Culinary-city pact — known as a “Memorandum of Understanding,” also up for a vote Wednesday — that would give the union the right to put the kibosh on future city development plans or even limit the size of the city’s Redevelopment Agency.
“This does seem to be a win-win,” said UNLV law professor Steve Johnson, who has followed the issue from the start. “Both sides can deservedly feel good about this outcome.”
If approved, the agreement will bring an unlikely peace to a dispute marked by harsh words, ballot initiatives and court battles.
Johnson said the Culinary was smart to look at the issue with a “wide-angle lens” — although it had issues with the new city hall project, it was able to use that fight to reach other goals, including the labor ordinance with the city.
Last week, the Culinary also inked a memorandum of understanding with Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises, the developer the city is working with on a hotel and casino for Symphony Park.
Forest City spokesman Jeff Linton said the Culinary’s deal with his company is similar to the union’s deal with the city in guaranteeing the right of workers to unionize.
Linton said Forest City held behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Culinary for more than a year. He declined to provide a copy of the agreement or to share details.
The agreement between the city and the Culinary spells out a rather clear quid pro quo: The Culinary may unionize future resorts downtown and, in return, it agrees not to picket or strike or sue the city.
Despite virulent past disagreements, the pact states that “all parties believe it in their mutual best interest to reach agreement in an amicable and positive manner, such that the parties may mutually support each other in key endeavors such as the City Hall project and labor peace agreements so that economic expansion may continue to the benefit of workers and citizens in the City of Las Vegas.”
The pact would mandate passage of a “labor peace ordinance” pertaining to future gaming hospitality projects in which the city has a financial interest.
Clearly the union had one such project in mind. If and when the city hall is completed, the city would swap 6.5 acres of adjacent Symphony Park land to Forest City in return for the 2.7 acres beneath the new city hall. The developer then will be obligated to start construction of a resort on that park site within five years.
Such an agreement between the city and the Culinary would in essence mandate that Forest City allow the Culinary to represent the project’s hotel workers — in return for agreeing not to strike or picket the project.
The agreement also would mandate that the union “refrain from pursuing any further lawsuits, initiatives or referenda regarding opposition to city hall, the (Redevelopment Agency) or related matters.”
The seven-pronged pact would allow a Citizens Advisory Committee to be formed to provide input on future Redevelopment Agency projects. In addition, the Culinary agreed not to lobby the Legislature on legislation affecting the city’s redevelopment projects except when both parties agree that the union’s involvement would “further the interest of a balanced and successful redevelopment process.”
The pact also would mandate that the city work with the Clark County School District to make sure schools have a “mechanism of support” when future redevelopment plans are considered.
The five-year agreement could be extended for up to four years if both parties agree.
City Manager Betsy Fretwell said in an interview that negotiations between the parties were ongoing for months before a final agreement was reached. The city is pleased that potential hindrances such as union-sponsored lawsuits and ballot initiatives have been taken off the table, Fretwell said.
“This gives us a greater sense of stability for the RDA as we move forward,” Fretwell said.
In a written statement, D. Taylor, the Culinary’s secretary-treasurer, said he also was satisfied with the agreement.
“We are pleased the city is making steps towards improving its process and we think the agreement signals that in the future there will be meaningful dialogue in the redevelopment process,” Taylor said. The memorandum “addresses our key concerns and ensures citizens will have a voice when tax dollars are involved and city services and schools are affected,” Taylor said.
The new city hall project is part of a $1 billion-plus downtown redevelopment plan that includes the possible Symphony Park resort, sports arena and entertainment district, new office buildings and the mob museum.
The plans are considered among the biggest legacies of Mayor Oscar Goodman, who once referred to Taylor and other Culinary leaders as “evil” for opposing his plans.
The Culinary in January filed petitions for two ballot questions. One, a referendum, would have prevented the city’s redevelopment agency from authorizing new projects. The other, an initiative, would have forced the city to gain voter approval for “lease-purchase” agreements worth more than $2 million — a measure aimed directly at Goodman’s city hall plans.
Both measures were approved for the June 2 ballot by the city clerk’s office, prompting the City Council to strip them from the ballot. The Culinary then filed a complaint with Nevada Supreme Court to have the measures reinstated. The union lost its court fight.
Meanwhile, the parties engaged in sporadic negotiations to find peaceful middle ground.
Those talks started last December, before the Culinary’s petitions were filed. By early March, when the city dumped the measures from the ballot, talks had ceased.
At some point they resumed, though neither Fretwell nor a Culinary spokeswoman would provide details.
Taylor has said that during his December discussion with Goodman, he presented a list of the union’s wishes to the mayor. In some regards that list mirrors the pact the City Council is set to approve next week, including the citizens panel.
But the union failed to extract one big, hoped-for concession — that the city would agree not to expand the size of the redevelopment area.
What private group would locate in the city of las Vegas if it is mandatory that you must have a Union work force.
Another illegal deal by the city and a preffered Union.
Where is the AG to stop this deal
Any mention of labor peace on construction? Is this the begining of a PLA?
Sammy06 is right. A Project Labor Agreement is nothing more than flushing good money down the toilet. Pat Mulroy at the Water Authority has a PLA on the foolish pipe project from central Nevada. Can someone explain why a welder in the middle of White Pine county has to be paid Union wages and benefits? Are there no people willing to work there for under $30/hr? Sheer laziness and collusion, same as this "agreement" with Culinary.
But in the end, there is always payback. Excessive Union costs stop future projects. We're seeing it now. Enjoy the Public projects, Union loafers, the private work is "ovah".
Why is it that posters who have never been in a union, and never worked a dirty job insist that workers do not unionize? One of the reasons that the Good Ol' USA is in such dire straits is because workers can't get a fair shake on the job. Whether wages or medical care or safety, all these are factors that have been improved through union involvement. Las Vegas is going to be a distant memory, unless the USA has a vibrant middle class. The USA will not have a vibrant middle without high paying jobs. Employers such as Wal-Mart and other non-union retailers will never pay their workers enough to visit Las Vegas. I guess the other three posters are alright with this.
Winners? The city (the taxpayers) gets to build what it wants to build. The union never should have had a say in this. The union gets a blackmail payoff to organize future private companies with city blessing? The taxpayers lose again.
Other unions lose, they lose the right to compete for members. The workers lose, they are required to join a union without a say in the decision. This has to be illegal or we should change the laws.
Now if the City could only get the Culinary to agree that it would stop promoting the hiring of illegal aliens at both union and non-union casino/hotels. Fat chance.
In Nevada we have an effective unemployment rate of 17%. The other night we went to dinner at a nice restaurant in a big, new casino. Every employee, from the hostess to the waiter to the bus boys to the restaurant manager to that person's supervisor could not speak plain, unaccented American English.
I actually had to ask the restaurant manager to speak to me in English when I had a complaint.
Illegal aliens have stolen the jobs of black and white American citizens. Neither our local, state or Federal government will meaningfully do anything about it.
Nevada's major employers refuse to participate in e-verify because they prefer a frightened, complacent workforce. And now, e-verify is going away.
Until America resolves this problem by deporting illegal aliens, and freezing immigration, this high level of unemployment will persist. If jobs across the country are not returned to American citizens, angry, unemployed American citizens and their families will ultimately vote Democrat Congressmen and President out of office. Just watch.
living in the desert with out a union is just living in the desert......dangerous !
See a related article in LVSun's "In Business LV" about the a coming wave of foreclosures related to the loss of so many union construction jobs at CC. Some folks in this town understand that the local economy depends upon persons who earn decent wages for their labor. Minimum wage workers cannot possibly keep small retail businesses employed; every dime goes for shelter and food. Buying a house or a new car (or even decent furniture)? Forget it!
By the same token, unions must prove that they can bargain in "true" good faith. They need to recognize that, in return for good wages and benefits, union workers must become more productive to justify the higher pay. Let's hope both sides realize that, on many levels, they need one another.
LV will always be a union town, and I'm thankful for that.
PNC Bank robbed me out of $56. That's a bank that needs to be investigated. PNC issues debit cards and then charges $25 and $7 per day for an overdraft. Funny how it takes a week to notify you! Absolutely criminal!
The culinary union won, the city won and skilled labor won, its about time! Its amazing to see so many people putting down labor unions and organized labor. The biggest losers here are the non-union contractors that for the most part are going to be left on the outside looking in. Why shouldnt hard working skilled workers without a voice have a chance to join a union. For so many decades this "right to work" loop hole is being used by employers as a tool to take advantage of its employees. My grandfather was offered the priviledge of joining his union, this brought a better way of life for his family back then and three generations later. Many people are just use to living with the fact that it is normal not having any rights at work, not having a voice at work, not being entitled to what is rightfully his, use to the fact that it is normal to not have conditions at work. If it were not for the struggles that unions went through and fought for in the past and today, we would still be working for pennies, no overtime pay, no eight hour days and no workers comp. Many of the things that are taken for granted in the non union workplace were put in place by the unions that are so hated by them (ironic, isnt it?). Is it wrong for a skilled worker to want to earn a decent pay with decent benefits? Just remember this, just as your boss has the right to "control his capital", you too have the right to control "your labor". Unknown to many, for quite a few years, there has been a strong organizing effort by all Building Trade Unions in Las Vegas and throughout the nation and every non union person that has been allowed to join the local unions have nothing but great things to say about their new careers with the unions, these are the same individuals who in the past were extremely "anti-union". So for those that just want to put down organized labor, you can say what you want to say but it is what it is. The culinary union used leverage to get what they wanted, tell me, for those of you that have no union representation, who at your place of employment would go through so many lengths to make sure that you have a job now and in the future? You can criticize the culinary union for using unorthadox practices but in the end their members are going to get work. In the future if the issue of "card check" ever comes up in your place of employment, I suggest that you strongly consider "voting in" representation, its the least you can do for your loved ones. For years we have been preaching "BUILD UNION - BUY AMERICAN", if only 5% of americans would have listened, the unemployment rate today would be at 0%. My intentions here are not to make anyone feel bad or berate anyone but the facts are the facts and the fear of the unknown and ignorance pushes many people to make remarks about issues that they know nothing about. Thank you Mr Ross and Mr Goodman, you have done well and you are truly appreciated!