{"id":9308,"date":"2012-07-11T13:04:46","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T21:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=9308"},"modified":"2020-10-16T07:02:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T15:02:22","slug":"the-wreck-of-the-sierra-rose-lvh-the-smell-of-death-twu-surrenders-unto-caesars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-wreck-of-the-sierra-rose-lvh-the-smell-of-death-twu-surrenders-unto-caesars\/","title":{"rendered":"The wreck of the Sierra Rose; LVH: The smell of death; TWU (sur)renders unto Caesars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was inevitable that this <strong>Lake Tahoe<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/lanow\/2012\/07\/three-story-32-million-luxury-yacht-sinks-in-lake-tahoe.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">marine disaster<\/a> would go viral. Besides, as an <em>S&amp;G<\/em> reader astutely pointed out, the sinking of the <em>Sierra Rose<\/em> makes a tidy metaphor for <strong>Nevada<\/strong>&#8216;s economy: a top-heavy <em>S.S. McMansion<\/em> now half-underwater due to a lack of structural integrity. Think of it as <strong>Fontainebleau<\/strong> in ship form.<br \/>\n<iframe src='https:\/\/widget.newsinc.com\/single.html?WID=2&#038;VID=23657120&#038;freewheel=69016&#038;sitesection=latimes' height='320' width='450' scrolling='no' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nConsidering that the <em>Sierra Rose<\/em> was lumbered with questionable accoutrements like granite fireplaces and a helipad (despite being only 86 feet from stem to stern), its owners are darned fortunate that this $3.2 million &#8220;town home on a barge&#8221; didn&#8217;t <!--more-->capsize outright. Had the evidently fragile hull been rent asunder while out on Lake Tahoe, we&#8217;d be talking serious loss of life. With any luck this seagoing eyesore will, like some of Vegas&#8217; worst failsinos, be sent to the scrapyard. Patching it up and putting her back onto the lake is an invitation to catastrophe.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-8064\" title=\"LVH logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/LVH-logo-300x145.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"145\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/LVH-logo-300x145.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/LVH-logo-150x72.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/LVH-logo.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Theatrical business took me<\/strong> last night to the <strong>Las Vegas Hotel &amp; Casino<\/strong>, where I surveyed the damage wrought by ex-owner <strong>Colony Capital<\/strong> and current one <strong>Goldman Sachs<\/strong>. Rarely have I set foot on such a sad, pathetic and lonesome gaming floor &#8212; especially at an ostensibly major casino. The slot and table-game inventory has been decimated and a high-limit slot room was out of action, storing unused furniture. All of the architectural elements of the <strong>SpaceQuest Casino<\/strong> are still in place &#8212; as is the logo &#8212; although there sure as hell wasn&#8217;t any gambling going on in it. Much of the main SpaceQuest floor has been converted into a very improvised-looking lounge space, although nobody was playing it yesterday evening. All the gamblers on-property could probably have been fit into old <strong>Nevada Palace<\/strong> with room to spare. In short, the LVH has leapfrogged far ahead of the <strong>Riviera<\/strong> and even <strong>Hooters Casino Hotel<\/strong> to become my #1 pick for <strong>Las Vegas Casino Most Likely to Go out of Business<\/strong>. Falling into the hands of Colony Capital Boob-in-Chief <strong>Tom Barrack<\/strong> is darn near to a casino&#8217;s death sentence.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1969\" title=\"Caesars Protest\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Caesars-Protest.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Caesars-Protest.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Caesars-Protest-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Caesars-Protest-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/>Five years of grindingly slow<\/strong> negotiations between <strong>Caesars Palace<\/strong> have finally resulted in a labor accord, one in which Caesars basically takes the <strong>Transport Workers Union<\/strong> to the cleaners. The <em>Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> was backhanded by Caesars and the TWU alike, posting a perfunctory &#8220;breaking news&#8221; item this morning. The rival <em>Sun<\/em>&#8216;s <strong>Steve Green<\/strong>, however, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vegasinc.com\/news\/2012\/jul\/11\/caesars-palace-union-finally-agree-contract-terms-\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"broken_link\">got the whole story<\/a>. (Could the relentlessly anti-union positions taken by the <em>R-J<\/em> have something to do with the freeze-out? Sounds likely.) Caesars&#8217; game plan against its dealers has been the same one it employs against <strong>Wall Street<\/strong>: Delay your opponent into despairing submission, then throw him a few crumbs whilst keeping the loaf for yourself.<\/p>\n<p>True, there will be grievance procedures in place &#8212; if the contract is ratified &#8212; that should curb the practice of arbitrary and summary termination. But when TWU mouthpiece <strong>Joe <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-1052\" title=\"Gary_loveman_Cropped_fmt\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Gary_loveman_Cropped_fmt-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Gary_loveman_Cropped_fmt-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Gary_loveman_Cropped_fmt.jpeg 204w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>Carbon<\/strong> is out front spinning the pact as sending a messing that &#8220;We&#8217;re here to stay,&#8221; you know darn well he got hosed at the negotiating table. For instance, Caesars&#8217; dealers don&#8217;t have to adopt the onerous 80 minutes on\/20 minutes off ratio to which some casinos would like to go &#8230; unless all of Caesars&#8217; Nevada properties adopt the practice. Gee, what do you think CEO\/CFO\/COB\/President\/Grand Vizier <strong>Gary Loveman<\/strong> is going to do? Might as well fork over those tokes right now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Another meaningless concession<\/strong> made by Caesars Palace President <strong>Gary Selesner<\/strong> is to promise not to unilaterally confiscate dealer tips. No, the casino must &#8220;demonstrate a need to do so for competitive reasons,&#8221; before negotiating terms of the TWU&#8217;s surrender. Considering that <strong>Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> is nearly $20 billion in debt and not even making enough to cover its debt service, I&#8217;m taking the &#8220;under&#8221; on Caesars invoking the &#8220;competitive reasons&#8221; clause. As Green points out, much of the blame falls upon Vegas dealers themselves, unlike their more-unified (and unionized) <strong>Detroit<\/strong> and <strong>Atlantic City<\/strong> counterparts. I&#8217;ve seen firsthand how quickly the can pivot from being united against a common enemy, such as <strong>Steve Wynn<\/strong>, to going for each others&#8217; throats. The casino industry&#8217;s divide-and-conquer strategy towards its dealership has been a brilliant success, without question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was inevitable that this Lake Tahoe marine disaster would go viral. Besides, as an S&amp;G reader astutely pointed out, the sinking of the Sierra Rose makes a tidy metaphor for Nevada&#8216;s economy: a top-heavy S.S. McMansion now half-underwater due &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-wreck-of-the-sierra-rose-lvh-the-smell-of-death-twu-surrenders-unto-caesars\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,3,44,14,4,59,81,7,153,76,55,32,9,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9308"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28253,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9308\/revisions\/28253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}