I feel that I can say the following as I have been a union member (UWA) and worked in a union shop.

1)The union protects the lazy, and promotes and rewards everyone the same reguardless of the effort, or lack there of, that you put into your job.

2) The union will only provide their side to members and will only point out the negative in any situation.

I worked in a truck plant that was shut down and moved. The union had no power to stop this, and after 25+ years of most of the plant staff being union they got nothing for the years of dues they paid into the union.

Why did they move the plant...the cost of operations which was mostly staffing costs. I can honestly say that we had almost twice the staff that was required, and they were paid way more than what was fair. I would now much rather have worked a little harder, and got paid a little less but still have my job at the plant.

Now you may say that they could never move or shut down the RIO for example...well do you really want to bet on that.

First off to SPFPAUNIONYES this current down turn in Las Vegas has little if nothing to do with unions. I would guess that the majority of people who visit Las Vegas are NOT union, and would not care about a picket line, and would have no problem crossing one.

Second I travel to Las Vegas 4-5 times a year. As of late, and the reason that my 2008 visits will not be as many are two fold.

1)Flights that used to be 275-300 are now 425-500 as every airline has added a fuel surcharge.

2)The level of service and value for money spent at the Casinos in Las Vegas has gone to hell. The room rate have been high, the payouts low, and the game odds have been getting worse and worse.

One more item to point out. I work in the oil and gas sector, and IMO Larry Haverty does not knows what he is talking about in reguards to the cost of oil not staying at $130 per. Outlook for this year is still that oil will hit $150 and that it will not drop below $110. Actual oil reserves are not the issue, but processing is and there is NO WAY IN HELL that north america is going to be in a position where we have a surplus of gas/diesel/jet fuel any time soon.

Jet fuel is not going to drop in cost any time soon and thus flights are not going to get cheeper, in turn it is going to take a lot cheeper vegas FRB to get people who fly willing to pay the higher flight cost.

I can't say that I know much about cranes, but why was this latest worker working on a moving crane?

It would seem to me that doing maintainence on a moving machinery is very dangerous. One would think that you would only do the work when the crane was not in operation.

Now if the site would not shut the crane down for the maintainence to be done, or the worker asked to shut the crane down to do the maintainence and was told to do the work with the crane in operation then yes the site should take the blame.

However if the worker did the work without getting the crane shut down, or did not ask for the crane to be shut down when there is an safety risk to be working there how can you blame the site for that?

Well for one the US economy is not very good right now, so less people in town will equal less tip's based just on that fact.

Secondly for those of us that travel to Las Vegas I have seen a change that has effected how I tip.

I have been coming to Las Vegas 4-5 times a year for the last 5+ years. In that time the service has dropped and the prices have gone up.

I did not mind leaving a good tip for good service and reasonable prices. However the change in the last two - three years is a drink now costs $10-$12 at the bar, tipping $3-$4 at a slot machine per drink and only getting poor drink service, and no entertainment or dinners that don't cost at least $100 per person have taken over.

It's pretty hard for the average income Vegas tourist to pay ever rising flight costs,high prices for drinks, dinners and entertainment and still hope that they will leave a big tip.

At this point its not that the tourist will not tip, but because of the higher costs of going to Las Vegas, they will not only tip less but many are not even going period.

RPJ to quote you "nightclubs are NOT created to provide the average person a night of dancing"

Maybe my look at this is a little differnt but to me the bottom line is the practices of theses clubs that are being operated in a hotel casino will effect the hotel casino. This article came about because of a henderson couple but it has been happening to out of town guests as well.

Consider a few things. Who do you feel is the type of person that is staying and playing at the Luxor for example? I'm pretty sure that 99% of the guests at Luxor are "average". Luxor is not a exclusive resort. Luxor is advertising these venues as a draw to stay at their hotel. If as the average guest you have no chance of useing this venue, as the average person will not be able to just shell out cash right and left and may not fit the "look" you say is required, and the club is filled with non-guests how does this venue help the hotel keep average guests coming back. Even worse if one of these guests does get raked over the coals in this venue it will make them have a bad visit, and question if they should bother staying there again, or for that fact if they have enough bad issues maybe not visit Las Vegas again. Add the fact that there are allegations of illegal actions, and it turns off the average guest even more.

Studio 54 was a stand alone club and did not have to worry about pissing off hotel guests. If as a club you want to operate in the manor you suggest my personal feeling is that it is not a venue that should be in the hotel. As a average hotel guest if I can not even visit the venues in the hotel I am staying in what good are they to me. Which changes over to why stay at that hotel to begin with, or for that matter why even fly xxx amount of miles to gamble.

Are clubs for eveyone, NO.

Do the hotels need average guests, YES.

Is allowing a clubs practices to effect hotel guests in a negative way good for business, NO.