Labor renews its focus

Southern Nevada labor leaders say the Nov. 3 election is their top priority now. After that, they'll focus on organizing the Venetian hotel-casino, Sunrise Hospital and state agencies.

Nevada AFL-CIO delegates gathered Monday for the group's 42nd Annual Constitutional Convention at the New Frontier hotel-casino. Labor officials said the AFL-CIO and its local unions will mount a national effort dubbed "Campaign 2000" the day after the November elections.

A string of candidates, mostly Democratic, spoke to the convention. And great emphasis was placed on getting members out to vote. But union officials promised stepped up activity after election day and in 1999 as well.

The goal, said AFL-CIO Western Region Director Mark Splain, is to change employers' behavior. Unions are fed up with what they say are stall tactics, such as appeals, allowed employers after union elections are held.

"The National Labor Relations Act does not work, and the prospects of changing it aren't good," Splain said.

Likely stuck with a Republican-controlled Congress not predisposed to changing the law, the unions will target employers taking non-union stances.

The unions want employers to recognize card counts -- where workers sign cards authorizing union representation -- rather than elections.

"We want to make card checks the norm. We want to make employer neutrality the norm," Splain said.

In Las Vegas this will mean, in some ways, more of the same. Union backers will be taking "direct actions" and filing charges of labor law violations, all aimed at mustering support for organizing workers.

Splain said the foundation for this kind of action in Las Vegas has been set by the Culinary Union and the building trades unions, which have been active in strikes, demonstrations and the pursuit of card counts.

Taking the kind of action described by Splain is nothing new to the Culinary Union, which has held demonstrations and filed numerous labor law violation charges against Ark Las Vegas Restaurants Inc. in the union's effort to get Ark, a subcontractor at the New York New York hotel-casino, to recognize the union based on a card count.

That kind of activity will be extended, Splain said. One target will be the Venetian hotel-casino, owned by union nemesis Sheldon Adelson. Organizing workers at the luxury Strip resort was an often-mentioned goal during Monday's convention.

Columbia-HCA's Sunrise Hospital is also on the list of targets. The Service Employees International Union has been seeking to organize workers there using protests and charges of lack of adequate staffing as rallying points. Sunrise officials have denied inadequate staffing charges and prefer an election as opposed to a card count.

Venetian officials said Monday they would recognize only an NLRB election.

"A card count is not an exact barometer of employee desire for union representation since it is handled solely by the union without oversight or review by an independent third party," Venetian President Bill Weidner said.

Splain said the AFL-CIO also wants to get collective bargaining rights for state employees across the country.

"Nevada is really an important state for getting collective bargaining for state employees," Splain said.

Much of the union's future political activity will focus on issues, rather than supporting specific candidates.

"The right to organize will be central to a lot of our politics," Splain said. "We see it as the basis for the year 2000."

But first, the unions plan to expend resources this campaign season on membership education and voter registration and mobilization. That means letting members know which candidates support union causes.

Culinary Union President John Wilhelm said Monday night the union will have 50 rank-and-file activists in Nevada addition to its full-time staff to rally its members to vote. In all, there will be 90 AFL-CIO and Culinary union activists working to get out the union vote.

He called on all union members to show the solidarity labor showed during the six-year strike at the Frontier hotel-casino.

"The 1998 election will be about one thing -- turnout," Wilhelm said.

He said the unions will demonstrate they are not automatically going to vote for a certain party, but for the candidate they think best represents their interests.

As for issues, the AFL-CIO will pay close attention to health care reform, Social Security and fast-track treaty approval, Splain said.

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