Thursday, Sept. 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
TIME has not softened either side in Nevada's longest-running labor dispute.
As the bitter strike against the Frontier hotel-casino turns five years old Saturday, observers believe a change in ownership is the only real hope for a resolution.
But Frontier General Manager Tom Elardi, whose family bought the hotel from Summa Corp. in 1988, said recent negotiations with International Culinary Union President Ed Hanley have left him optimistic about a resolution.
"If Ed Hanley had been involved in the negotiations before 1991," Elardi said, "we wouldn't even have had a strike. If there's ever going to be a settlement, he's going to be the one to facilitate it."
The latest talks broke down about two months ago over two issues and, while no new negotiations are scheduled, "the door is still open," Elardi said.
"The union insisted that we eliminate our current health-and-welfare benefit program and put all union-category employees on the Culinary plan," he said. "We are about $20 million apart over the five-year contract term, and that additional benefits cost made up more than half of it.
"They aren't willing to budge on that. If you want a settlement, you have to go to their plan. I told them if they'd give us the opportunity to phase it in, we'd consider anything. But they had to be realistic."
The other issue, he said, involves the union demand that all strikers be rehired.
"I believe the ones who've been violent or who participated in major picket line misconduct shouldn't come back," Elardi said. "The union says that's the only way they will settle, but I absolutely refuse to take them back."
There have been scattered incidents of violence since Sept. 21, 1991, the day more than 500 union workers walked off their jobs to protest imposition of new pay scales and work rules and the lack of a contract. Since then, Culinary and Bartenders members have maintained round-the-clock picket lines at the Frontier.
Elardi said when his family bought the property, "we knew the collective bargaining agreement expired on July 1, 1989, and we could then sit down and negotiate a new contract with terms and conditions that fit our style of operations."
But the unions, he said, "went to almost every other property before they'd sit down with us. By the time they did, they had two types of contracts -- a Mirage contract and a 'Big Six' contract.
"They said, 'OK, you have two choices; take one.' I said, 'What do you mean?' They said, 'You're on the Strip now; you have to sign a Strip contract. There are no negotiations.'
"Well, we would absolutely never have bought the Frontier if the word 'negotiations' meant take it or leave it."
However, a federal appeals court ruled last year that the Frontier broke the law when it cut off workers' pension contributions, imposed work rules and spied on union members before the strike began.
The court also found the Frontier's appeal of a National Labor Relations Board ruling in the case without merit and ordered the hotel to reimburse the NLRB and the Culinary and Bartenders unions for legal fees and double their court costs.
The ruling also held the Frontier liable for losses union members sustained due to the work rules and said it must restore the pension money. The total, said Culinary Local Secretary Treasurer Jim Arnold, could reach $60 million once appeals costs and interest are computed.
The two sides' hard-line stances on the benefit plan and rehiring issues, coupled with the acrimony that has marked that dispute over the years, has led many to believe only a sale of the Frontier will resolve the strike.
"When you're involved in head-knocking sessions such as this, people sometimes get locked into their positions and believe they can't back out," said Sen. Richard Bryan, D.-Nev.
"A sale strikes me as one mechanism because the new management might settle. And it would remove the ticking financial time bomb regarding the pension money the Frontier owes the union. But the Elardis would have to want to sell."
"We're not actively looking to sell," Elardi said. "But everything material has a price. We're just not going to give the property away."
In the last few months, Atlantic City gaming figure Donald Trump and Bally Entertainment Chairman Arthur Goldberg each made offers for the property, reportedly in the $200 million range. Elardi declined to comment on whether any additional offers have been made.
As the strike dragged on, Nevada's political leaders urged a resolution. The congressional delegation asked both sides to submit to binding arbitration. So did Gov. Bob Miller, who called the strike "a blight on the image of Nevada" and said Elardi has been "unwilling to negotiate in good faith" with the unions.
At one point, union officials and some legislators suggested the State Gaming Control Board consider revoking the Frontier's license for conduct that discredits the gaming industry. Control Board Chairman Bill Bible said federal laws normally preclude state regulatory agencies from taking action in labor disputes.
Other casino owners such as William Bennett, Circus Circus founder and current owner of the Sahara hotel-casino, expressed their support for the strikers.
"Mr. Bennett bought a truck and has been feeding the strikers three hot meals a day since this all began," Arnold said. "He cares about all the working people in the state, not just Culinary members."
Elardi said he does, too.
"If you analyze it, this strike is a cash cow for the unions," he said. "They're collecting $15 a month from 40,000 union members, which is $7.2 million a year, and paying a lot less than that in strike benefits.
"There's no incentive for them to settle this. These guys are making money hand over fist on the backs of the workers."
That's a smokescreen, Arnold said.
"They've refused to talk at all since the last time Ed Hanley was in town," he said. "They want to totally rape the workers, and we'll never settle for something like that."
Bryan said such angry rhetoric on both sides has made it difficult for the opponents to find any common ground.
"If someone that both sides had confidence in could broker some kind of agreement that would address the Elardi's concern about the financial losses the hotel faces as a consequence of the NLRB decision, it might break some new ground," he said.
"This strike has gone on too long. It ought to be settled."
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