Culinary: 'We beat the IRS'

A group of Culinary Union workers had just returned from a day of campaigning for one of their favorite candidates Wednesday evening when they learned that earlier in the day President Clinton signed the Internal Revenue Service Reform bill.

Included in the bill was a section preventing the IRS from taxing meals furnished to employees by their employers -- a section that, had it not been added to the reform, probably would have impacted the Culinary Union more than any other single group in the country.

Nationwide there are 250,000 union members. The Las Vegas chapter, with 40,000 members, is the largest in the union.

The IRS declared earlier in the year it was going to begin treating meals supplied to casino workers and others in the hospitality industry as taxable income.

The result would have meant a pay cut of between $300 and $400 per year for a part of the industry that can least afford the loss, Glen Arnodo, political action director for the local Culinary workers, said. He was at the forefront of the campaign to have the meal tax rejected.

His campaign included demonstrations and tens of thousands of letters sent to key politicians.

"Our rank and file learned a big political lesson from this," Arnodo said. "They learned you can't get what you want just by marching with a sign on a stick. They must become politically active."

The signing of the reform law was anti-climactic, because it overwhelmingly passed both the House and Senate, but it was no less exciting for those who stood to lose the most.

Don Strevel, a Culinary Union organizer, and Pat Grant, a hostess at Union Plaza, were ecstatic when they learned of the signing ceremony.

They and others had spent the day canvassing neighborhoods and handing out flyers for waitress Maggie Carlton, a Culinary Union member and Democrat who is running for the state Senate.

"I'm totally elated," Strevel said. "We beat the IRS."

"Now we know we can fight them," Grant said.

Strevel said if the IRS had been allowed to follow through with its plan it would have taken the food off people's tables and shoes off their feet.

"It was immoral for the IRS to try this," Strevel said.

Culinary Union member Peggy Pierce said the events leading up to the signing of the reform bill "illustrates the need for unions to be politically involved."

"If we're not involved in politics, we're going to lose," she said.

Arnodo said the free meals for employees at the hotels and casinos are a business necessity, not simply a benefit.

"What would happen if tens of thousands of employees had to leave their job sites to go get a meal?" Arnodo asked.

Arnodo attributed the victory to several things, among them cooperation between employers and union members.

If the IRS had won the battle, hotels and casinos would have had to come up with millions of dollars in back taxes covering the meals.

Arnodo continued to emphasize that the campaign against the IRS was a good political lesson for union members.

"Bargaining is good," he said, "but you must also be politically active."

Nevada's lawmakers in Washington, D.C., attended the White House signing ceremony.

"It's very gratifying to work so hard on an issue and see the work pay off for Nevadans," said Republican Rep. John Ensign, who attended the signing ceremony along with Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan.

The Nevada lawmakers pushed for the exemption at the urging of the state's casino industry.

In addition to the meal tax provision, the new law also establishes a citizen board to oversee a restructuring of the IRS and shifts the burden of proof during an audit from the taxpayer to the agency.

Arnodo attributed the victory to a convergence of factors.

"We had the union and employers working closely together," he said. "And it came at a time when the IRS was vulnerable."

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