Question of the Day - 23 April 2007

It’s true that the five-year contracts for 50,000 Las Vegas hotel and restaurant employees are set to expire on June 1. But that’s about all that can be said at this point.

It’s a little early to tell how the negotiations are going, since preliminary talks started only a week ago. It’s even too soon to know what the Culinary Union has in mind in terms of cost of living increases, health and welfare benefits, or the length of this contract.

Also, it’s unclear how recent major changes in the gaming industry will affect the Culinary Union’s position vis-a-vis the casinos. Since the last contracts were signed in 2002, MGM Mirage bought Mandalay Resort Group; Harrah’s bought Caesars Entertainment; Boyd Gaming bought Coast Casinos; the Las Vegas Hilton and Tropicana were bought up by private equity groups; and the Aladdin, Hard Rock, and several other hotel-casinos also changed hands. Meanwhile, Harrah’s will definitely be going private by the end of this year and Station Casinos probably will too.

On the other hand, MGM Mirage and Harrah’s have traditionally maintained cordial working relationships with the union, and of the 50,000 Culinary members in Las Vegas, nearly 38,000 of them work for the two casino giants. Indeed, Harrah’s takeover of the Imperial Palace last year bodes well for the union’s ambitions for that property; historically the most virulent anti-union casino on the Strip, the IP will almost certainly join up with Culinary this time around. That would leave the Venetian as the only non-union property on the Strip.

Though negotiations between unions and managers can get testy and tense, a strike is always possible -- the Atlantic City Culinary local struck seven casinos for a month in 2004 -- and uncertainties abound in this round, we haven’t heard or seen anyone sounding alarm bells. Yet. But watch this space for updates as the deadline looms.

Over a year later, all Strip casinos that negotiated with the Culinary have long since signed contracts -- except the Tropicana. It is still at loggerheads with the union, wanting to opt out of the otherwise-standard (except at the Venetian) Strip labor contract. The Trop's proposal would eliminate guaranteed hours, permit the subcontracting of an unlimited number of jobs, and replace the Culinary's pension plan with a Columbia Sussex 401K. Not surprisingly, the Culinary has been unreceptive to this, as it would constitute an enormous give-back. The two sides have hunkered down and snipe at each other through the newspapers. Off the Strip, negotiations at Jerry's Nugget were taking a long time to resolve, as of last report. Our inquiry to the Culinary received no response, so we must conclude that they're still at an impasse.