Tuesday, March 25, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
A Laughlin Carpenters Union local is taking on gaming giant Circus Circus Enterprises in a dispute over the layoffs of seven workers after they voted to join the union.
Carpenters Local 897 will air its unfair labor practice charges in an administrative hearing before the National Labor Relations Board on April 1 in Bullhead City, Ariz. If the union wins, it may seek a federal injunction forcing the company to rehire the workers.
But a spokeswoman for Circus Circus, predicting the company would prevail, said the layoffs had nothing to do with the union election.
Union leaders believe a victory would go a long way toward helping them organize other casino workers in the resort town 90 miles south of Las Vegas. The dispute also is coming to a head at a time when the AFL-CIO is pouring at least $6 million into efforts to organize workers throughout Southern Nevada.
"There are 12,000 nonunion workers in this town, and everyone is standing back to see what happens to these seven workers," said Local 897 Business Manager Frank Hawk. "If we win this case, then (the union) will take off like a wildfire."
About 600 Southern Nevada union members showed their support for the laid-off carpenters on Saturday by picketing the Edgewater and Colorado Belle hotel-casinos. The four-hour march was believed to be the biggest ever labor protest in Laughlin.
Last August, the carpenters who work in the shop serving both casinos voted 9-1 in an NLRB-certified election to allow the union to act as their bargaining agent. Two months later, seven of the men who voted for the union were laid off.
Circus Circus spokeswoman Sarah Ralston said Monday that lack of work forced the layoffs. Only three carpenters, including the man who voted against the union, remain employed by the casinos.
"Clearly, the Laughlin market has stagnated at best," Ralston said. "In several areas in Laughlin we are overstaffed."
But Glen McMillan of Bullhead City, one of the laid-off workers, believes the company retaliated against him and fellow union supporters. Still unemployed, the sole bread winner for a five-member household said there is more than enough work at the casinos for all 10 carpenters.
"I was there for three and a half years, and we had more work than we could deal with," McMillan said. "We were so backlogged we were about a year behind on work orders."
The carpenters' duties include building slot machine stands and repairing hotel furniture.
"After the election the work orders disappeared, and they stopped ordering material for us," McMillan said. "I thought they would bargain in good faith because they're a big company and because all of their properties in Las Vegas are unionized."
The carpenters' local, formed in April 1995 with 130 members, has grown to 500 construction workers in the tri-state area. But it hasn't yet succeeded in organizing any of Laughlin's casinos.
Hawk said the carpenters attempted to organize the Circus Circus properties to improve working conditions. He said complaints about poor ventilation in the carpenters' shop have been rectified but that other problems persist.
"They wanted shift change notices," he said. "They didn't like the fact they had to work an eight-hour day, and then come in and take a new shift on few days' notice."
Hawk said his local received verbal assurances from former Circus Circus Chairman William Bennett that the company wouldn't resist union efforts at the Laughlin properties. But Bennett left the company and now owns the Sahara hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
Hawk described current Circus Circus executives as "bean counters" unwilling to work with the union.
But Ralston said Circus Circus enjoys a solid relationship with organized labor. She noted the company employs thousands of union members.
"We're obviously one of the premier employers of union workers in the state," she said.
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