Thursday, May 30, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.
The Culinary Union on Wednesday extended its strike deadline until July 1 with 17 casinos that have yet to reach contract agreements.
The one-month extension, which was sought by eight struggling downtown hotels, buys the union more time to negotiate deals with the remaining casinos and averts a threatened weekend walkout.
"Our goal is to get things done," Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor said late Wednesday. "This is the one and only extension -- 30 days, that's it."
John Wilhelm, the union's international president and chief negotiator, said the extension was offered to all 17 casinos, but he was hoping for deals this week with the Riviera and the Boyd Group, which owns the Stardust, Fremont and Main Street Station. Those companies have scheduled talks with the union today and Friday.
"Having spent an enormous amount of time, effort and focus in discussing the contract with the large companies, we thought it would be appropriate to take a reasonable amount of additional time to talk through the issues with the remaining employers" Wilhelm said.
"On the other hand, we don't believe that there's any justification for a significantly different contract on the part of the rest of the employers."
The union has reached tentative agreements with the four major Strip operators -- Park Place Entertainment, Harrah's Entertainment, Mandalay Resort Group and MGM MIRAGE -- which make up 75 percent of the union's 50,000 members. Together those companies negotiated deals for 18 of their properties.
Those agreements, which are expected to be ratified by union members next week, give workers an increase of nearly $3.24 an hour in wages and benefits, their largest ever, over a five-year period. A major portion of the new money will go to the union's $300 million health and welfare fund to protect free medical coverage for its members and families.
Attorney Gregory Kamer -- who sought the extension on behalf of Binion's Horseshoe, Four Queens, Fitzgerald's, Union Plaza, Las Vegas Club, El Cortez and the Western -- said his clients can't afford the Strip deal.
"We've got a lot of work do,"' he said. "It's going to be a hard month. I think that the posturing is over, and we're going to have to get down to some serious issues very quickly."
Sal Gugino, a lawyer for the Castaways, which also asked for more negotiating time, said the downtown hotels will need economic concessions from the union.
"The circumstances are that the package they have presented to us is far too rich for our hotel and most of the downtown properties to consider," he said. "I think it's up to us to persuade the union negotiating committee that we have to have different terms to successfully work with the union.
"We're developing proposals that will make it clear what we can afford."
The eight properties plan to give a presentation to the union next Friday morning.
Wilhelm said the union understands that the downtown hotels haven't been generating the same kind of revenues as the megaresorts on the Strip.
"We're going to do our best to find an answer that works for the employers and the employees," he said. "However, at the end of the day we don't control the management of these hotels."
"While we're certainly willing to try to find reasonable accommodations for the downtown properties ... we've made it clear that the question of the health plan, the pension plan and in broad terms the overall agreement are quite important to those employees. Those employees are not second-class members of this union."
Wilhelm said many of the downtown hotels, unlike their Strip counterparts, have failed to recognize the importance of investing in their properties to attract new business.
"They need to persuade our members that there's a brighter future in downtown," Wilhelm said. "There's nothing inherent built in about the downtown market that says that people can't compete."
Wilhelm said the union was able to offer the extension because of its ability to reach tentative agreements with the "Big Four" Strip operators.
The agreements, he said, allow the union's health and welfare fund to receive a large boost in income next month.
"That enables us to go for a month without anybody's claims being in jeopardy," he said.
Wilhelm said the union is expecting the downtown hotels to accept the same increases as the Strip resorts to the health fund. Protecting medical benefits has been the union's top priority during six weeks of negotiations.
During the one-month extension, the union, though it can't conduct any work stoppages, still has the right to demonstrate and hand out leaflets outside the casinos.
All provisions of any future agreements with the 17 properties also will be retroactive to June 1.
The other casinos which still haven't come to terms with the union are Sahara, Barbary Coast, Stratosphere, Golden Gate and Jerry's Nugget.
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