Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001 | 11:17 a.m.
The powerful Teamsters Union is laying the groundwork for a major organizing campaign aimed at Las Vegas' casino dealers -- the second such campaign Las Vegas has seen in as many years.
Jim Santangelo, an international vice president for the Teamsters' Western Region, is set to come to Las Vegas on Jan. 2-3 to meet with casino dealers. Santangelo will apparently be gauging support among dealers for an organizing campaign by the Teamsters Union.
"He (Santangelo) has pledged his full support, stating that he is committed to the effort and will take an active role in our organizing campaign," said a draft of a flier that will soon be distributed to Las Vegas dealers.
"From everything I know, the excitement this is generating throughout the community with the dealers is overwhelming," said Las Vegas union consultant Marty Levitt, who is working with the Teamsters on the effort. "Word is already spreading. These meetings are going to be beyond standing room only."
The move has infuriated another union -- the Transport Workers Union, which launched its own organizing campaign aimed at dealers just a year ago. The TWU prevailed in votes at three hotel-casinos -- the Tropicana, Stratosphere and New Frontier -- though it has yet to negotiate a contract at any of them.
Frank Trotti, organizer for the TWU, said the Teamsters would be violating the AFL-CIO constitution by making a move on Las Vegas dealers. And he vowed his union was not about to step aside.
"We put our time and effort into this, and no one else wanted them (the dealers)," Trotti said. "We're all unions here, and it doesn't help the union effort when renegade union people do that.
"This (the TWU's organizing drive) is a long battle. We're not going anywhere."
Teamsters officials declined comment on a possible organizing effort.
The effort by the Teamsters, if it unfolds, would not be the first time the union has tried to represent Las Vegas casino dealers. In separate elections in 1977 and 1981, Teamsters Local 14 won elections to represent dealers at the Frontier (now the New Frontier). But the union was never able to successfully negotiate a contract with the hotel-casino's management, and withdrew in 1987.
Another Teamsters local -- Las Vegas-based Local 995 -- began exploring the issue once again in 1999. But the Teamsters later backed away from an organizing drive, feeling it might undermine their efforts to negotiate new contracts for their existing casino members.
Proponents of organization, including Levitt and pro-union casino dealers, began approaching other unions about an organizing drive. One union they approached was the United Steelworkers of America, which has been immersed in a drive to negotiate a contract for employees at the Flamingo Laughlin since 1993.
"You could say we were approached, but we really didn't see that thing going anywhere, and never got involved in it," said Terry Bonds, director of the Steelworkers' 12th District, which includes Nevada. "I'm not saying we wouldn't if there was a hue and cry, but we didn't like the approach (the dealers) wanted to take. We didn't want to piecemeal the thing and go after one, two little (casinos) at a time."
But the TWU, a union that represented no gaming employees, was interested. A vast majority of dealers signed cards calling for elections at 11 Strip properties, and National Labor Relations Board-supervised elections began in January.
Between the card-signing campaign and the votes, the TWU's support nearly evaporated. Dealers at eight of the 11 properties where votes were held voted against the union. To date no contract has been negotiated at the three properties that did vote for the union.
The outcome of the TWU soured many of the TWU's Las Vegas allies, who said the union failed to devote the resources necessary to combat a ferocious counter-campaign by casino-hired labor consultants, known in labor circles as "union busters."
Efforts then apparently began several months ago to recruit a new union to take up the fight again. That led to a revival of the Teamsters' interest in Las Vegas dealers, Levitt said.
Word of the rekindled interest of the Teamsters reached the TWU several months ago, and TWU officials met with Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa to discuss the situation during the AFL-CIO's international convention, held in Las Vegas last month, Trotti said.
The message TWU officials got at that meeting was that the international union wouldn't back the Las Vegas organizing effort, Trotti said.
"The last time I heard, he (Hoffa) was supposed to talk to Teamsters in town and tell them to cease and desist," Trotti said. "Hoffa gave our president his word last month that he'd tell them to stop."
Trotti denies it, but Levitt insists the effort has Hoffa's personal backing -- and that AFL-CIO leaders have already cleared the Teamsters to launch a campaign.
"The commitment came directly from Jim Hoffa," Levitt said. "I suspect, from everything I'm hearing, that he'll play a direct role. You can expect a lot of Hoffa appearances as the campaign starts to break open next year."
And Levitt predicted the Teamsters will be able to break through.
"The Teamsters are the most diverse union on the planet, their resources are vast, and they know what they're doing," Levitt said. "It's going to be an all-out war, but it's the kind of war the Teamsters are more than capable of winning."
Others aren't so sure.
"If you look at the track record, it hasn't been a good one," said Shannon Bybee, executive director of UNLV's International Gaming Institute. "It's one thing to win an election, another to win the contract. No one has been able to win the contract, and it's been the same thing in Atlantic City."
Bybee says it's possible the Teamsters could prevail in a contract fight, but only if the union commits every resource it has to the fight. That must include the possibility of other Teamster casino employees, such as front desk clerks and warehouse workers, going on strike if contract talks stall, Bybee said.
"It may be the other members don't want to walk," Bybee said. "When you tell a front desk clerk he's not going to be able to work because you're striking on behalf of the highest-paid employees in the place, it's my guess you'll have trouble selling that."
Dealers may also not be as willing to rock the boat these days, following thousands of layoffs along the Strip, Bybee said.
"It makes it harder to negotiate, because if they don't get a contract, and they have to walk the (picket) line, there isn't someplace else they can go to," Bybee said.
But Tony Badillo, president of the International Union of Gaming Employees, believes the layoffs will have the opposite effect.
"The dealers are looking for job security. That's the No. 1 issue," Badillo said.
Badillo's Las Vegas-based organization claims 1,500 members, and IUGE officials have said they want to launch their own dealer organizing campaign. IUGE isn't affiliated with the AFL-CIO, but with an international labor organization based in Argentina.
Badillo, however, is more than willing to work with the Teamsters.
"I think it's for real this time ... I really believe they want to get involved and get these dealers organized," Badillo said. "If they call us in, we'll be glad to jump in there and start a good campaign with a lot of experience behind it."
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