Saturday, March 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
JEFF GERMAN is a senior investigative reporter. His column also appears in the Las Vegas SUN on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He can be reached at 259-4067 or on the Internet at [email protected]
TWO years ago, it was just a dream of Culinary Union leaders. The odds of obtaining a collective bargaining agreement with the MGM Grand, one of the most vocal anti-labor businesses in the country, seemed impossible.
Today, with the MGM under a new progressive management team, union leaders are optimistic they'll have a signed contract with the Strip megaresort in the coming weeks.
Similar talks also are underway at New York-New York, the MGM's sister casino across the street.
"I'm confident we'll get an agreement," says John Wilhelm, secretary-treasurer of the Washington-based international Culinary Union. "Both the company and the union intend to have a strong working relationship."
MGM officials apparently feel the same way.
"We certainly expect a contract will be entered into," says MGM Grand Chairman Terry Lanni.
Wilhelm was in Las Vegas last week to open talks with the MGM, the first in a series of negotiations with some of the biggest casino companies in the world.
How the MGM discussions go will dictate the way the rest of some 40 Las Vegas casinos deal with the Culinary Union over the next two months. Current contracts expire the end of May.
"The first contract usually takes a long time," Wilhelm says. "We're starting from scratch."
Once the MGM is locked up, union leaders expect the rest of the hotels to follow suit.
This time, the union is seeking a five-year, rather than a three-year contract, something that should be agreeable to most hotels.
"The longer the better," says Lanni.
Union leaders expect the talks to go more quickly this year because of the efforts within the casino industry to consolidate.
Today, a handful of gaming companies -- MGM Grand, Mirage Resorts, Hilton Hotels Corp., ITT-Sheraton Corp. and Circus Circus Enterprises, -- make up 75 percent of the Culinary Union's 40,000-plus members.
This year's talks may attract more interest because of the scrutiny the casino industry is getting in Washington.
National news organizations are focusing much attention on Las Vegas as a federal commission gears up to study the industry.
In that context, ensuring that the MGM talks go smoothly has become very important to the industry.
Ironically, both Wilhelm and Lanni have been appointed to the nine-member federal gaming panel, which will study the social and economic impact of legalized gambling over the next two years.
Neither wants to leave himself open to criticism about matters within their own houses, as the scrutiny intensifies on Capitol Hill.
D. Taylor, staff director of Culinary Workers Local 226 in Las Vegas, says he expects there will be additional pressure on both sides this time around.
"The industry has to prove that it in fact has good jobs, with good wages, good benefits and good job security," Taylor says. "The verdict is still out on that when you consider the proliferation of subcontracting of restaurant jobs that offer crummy wages, no benefits and no job security."
MGM and New York-New York have struck deals with subcontractors to manage their restaurants and hire employees.
Culinary officials are hoping to find a way to include those employees in their collective-bargaining agreements and reverse a trend that threatens to spread along the Strip.
Taylor believes the subcontractors issue will be the most "contentious point" in the MGM negotiations and could cause the biggest damage to the industry across the country if an impasse is reached.
"This could be highly destructive to the standard of living in this town and the industry's argument that it provides good jobs," Taylor says.
At the same time, the union can't push too hard on this issue or it may encounter a backlash from the business community.
Like Wilhelm, Taylor is optimistic the union and the MGM will come together in the end.
In the meantime last week, Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, the industry's Washington lobby, expressed his frustration at dealing with the national media.
"In an ideal world, the media would make sure to first receive all the facts before printing a story or airing a broadcast," Fahrenkopf writes in the AGA's latest newsletter. "But the reality is that news articles, editorials and news programs are frequently filled with inaccuracies, biases and outdated information about our industry and others."
Fahrenkopf uses the Washington Post as an example of what the industry is up against.
He says the Post has written 20 "negative" editorials about gaming in the past 18 months and has refused to print the industry's responses all but twice.
"The gaming industry will never be without its critics," Fahrenkopf writes. "We must accept this fact, but it should not cause us to shy away from our efforts to tell our story."
Part of that story is what Fahrenkopf calls "putting a face on the industry," a public relations campaign to focus attention on gaming's hard-working employees across the country.
As the MGM and New York-New York contract talks progress, and subsequently the discussions involving the rest of the casino industry, you can be sure that public relations campaign will be on the minds of Culinary Union leaders.
For them, it may be another dream come true.
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It was no coincidence that newly appointed County Manager Dale Askew made his presence felt in Carson City last week.
Askew, who takes over from retiring County Manager Pat Shalmy next month, was dispatched to the Legislature to show the county has things well in hand in the sensitive infrastructure talks.
It was a solid indication that Askew, one of the top numbers guys in Southern Nevada, has become the county's point man on the subject.
Askew met with leaders in both houses to reassure them the county plans to be on the same page with the lawmakers, as officials search for the right formula to fund Southern Nevada's infrastructure needs into the 21st Century.
His visit was said to have been well-received by lawmakers.
Still unresolved, however, is what role Shalmy, who has complained about being left out of the loop, will play in future infrastructure talks.
Shalmy has indicated he wants to participate after he leaves next month. But he has yet to disclose his new career plans.
He may have to do that before the county considers making him part of its infrastructure team.
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