Friday, Nov. 9, 2001 | 4:37 a.m.
Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. H
IN THE LAST decade, Culinary Workers Local 226 in Las Vegas has been a source of pride to the American Labor movement.
Some within the AFL-CIO even have gone as far as calling the union, with its savvy grassroots politicking and cordial Strip relations, the model for the resurgence of organized labor.
Next month the AFL-CIO once more will hold its annual convention in Las Vegas, and once more it will give the Culinary Union a chance to shine.
But just how brightly the union will shine remains to be seen.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the union has been forced into the trenches on the Strip in an attempt to save the jobs of thousands of its members. About 15,000 Las Vegans, primarily union workers, are among the 700,000 Americans laid off since the acts of terrorism in New York and Washington.
These statistics are putting a sobering cloud over next month's convention.
But there's some irony here, too. Layoffs have occurred at the two hotels hosting the convention.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and his executive council open the convention Dec. 3 at Paris and Bally's, which are owned by Park Place Entertainment Inc. Since Sept. 11 Park Place has laid off 1,800 employees at its five resorts here.
Indeed, many of the hospitality workers who helped make AFL-CIO leaders comfortable during last year's convention at Paris and Bally's won't be around next month. They'll be home collecting unemployment checks.
Further clouding this year's gathering is the Culinary Union's current struggle with Strip management over the working conditions of those still employed. Management at convention hosts Paris and Bally's is said to be in the middle of that fight.
Things are getting ugly.
"We're doing battle all over town," says Culinary Staff Director D. Taylor. "It's a very volatile and contentious situation."
Union reps and shop stewards on the front lines are having trouble resolving a variety of work-related grievances that have occurred because of the layoffs.
For the most part, they're fighting to reduce the workloads of the hotel employees, many of whom are doing the jobs of two or three people. Management, according to the union, has been tough to budge.
Park Place officials won't publicly discuss their dealings with the union.
But some gaming executives have suggested the union may be taking an extra tough stand with Park Place in the hopes of gaining leverage for upcoming contract talks with the casino industry. Five-year collective bargaining agreements along the Strip expire at the end of May, and both sides are expected to begin negotiating new deals in March or April.
Culinary leaders, however, insist they have serious concerns about employee workloads.
"We're just asking them to allow people to work like normal human beings," Taylor says.
Sweeney and the rest of the AFL-CIO bigwigs coming to Las Vegas next month are well aware of the Culinary Union's fight. And they are not above putting their muscle behind the union if called upon. They've done it in the past with much success.
Late last week word surfaced that the AFL-CIO is thinking about demonstrating solidarity with its brothers and sisters in Las Vegas.
There was talk of diverting some of the labor money earmarked for the families of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington to a relief fund for the laid-off Las Vegas workers.
Such a charitable contribution, timed for the convention, would attract much national media interest and send a clear message that the eyes of the American labor movement once more are focused on Las Vegas and Culinary Workers Local 226.
But if relations between the union and the casino industry continue to deteriorate in the coming weeks, it may be a message that the boardrooms of the Strip won't want to hear.
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