Tenser and tenser as Trop and workers negotiate

By Liz Benston, Michael Mishak

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Labor-management tensions at the Tropicana escalated Monday, with the Culinary Union calling on the corporate owners to publicly apologize for dismissing employees’ payroll and security concerns at the property.

The Culinary and owner Columbia Sussex have been engaged in a bitter fight since May over a new contract affecting about 700 workers.

The talks, long stalled over health care and pension benefits, turned ugly last week when the company bought a full-page ad in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, ostensibly to refute a report about payroll problems by Sun columnist Jeff Simpson. The company characterized as “utter fiction” the report that employees had been told not to cash their paychecks on payday and that hundreds had been underpaid.

On Monday, Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor added to the list of payroll complaints. At a 30-minute union committee meeting before both sides entered negotiations, Taylor said workers have been shorted overtime pay, noticed incorrect deductions for child support payments and discovered the company has been using the wrong IRS-negotiated rate in declaring tip income. He motioned to a 6-inch-thick pile of paper that he said was a stack of employee complaints about payroll problems at the Tropicana.

Hotel executives have acknowledged at least some problems.

Nevada Labor Commissioner Michael Tanchek said Monday that Columbia Sussex miscalculated overtime pay for several workers at one of the company’s Lake Tahoe casinos but said the problem is common among casino and nongaming employers and has been addressed.

Tanchek said he’s not aware of any other wage or tip claims filed by Tropicana workers.

Columbia Sussex’s overtime problems surfaced last fall when a handful of workers at the company’s Horizon casino in Lake Tahoe — some of whom were not paid overtime for 10-hour shifts — filed complaints with the commissioner.

A company review found that over a two-year period about 40 workers were entitled to back pay of about $400 each, Tanchek said. The company has paid those workers. Tanchek said the state is monitoring the company’s internal investigation of payroll issues at five other casinos in Nevada, and has yet to hear from it.

Columbia Sussex spokesman Hud Englehart, however, said the company’s investigation has concluded that no other Nevada properties had miscalculated overtime pay.

Englehart, contacted late afternoon Monday, said the company couldn’t respond to the union’s other complaints by press time because its payroll department was closed for the day.

On Monday, Taylor also blasted the company for accusing the union of “gaming the system” when the Culinary complained to state regulators that the incidence of crime was rising at the Tropicana. The company has accused union members of calling police in order “to run up the numbers.”

Said Taylor: “There is a pattern here of lying, and we’re not going to let them get away with it. We can’t allow this company to go to the media and lie and not call them on it. It’s very important we put them on notice.”

And then: “If we don’t turn up the heat here it’s going to get crazier and crazier.”

Taylor said Priority One at Monday’s session was to solicit an apology from Columbia Sussex. Late on Monday it was unclear whether that had happened. Two Sun reporters were invited by the union to witness the bargaining session but the company refused to let them stay, saying negotiations should remain private.

Other issues the union planned to address at Monday’s session: Defining part-time and full-time workers and getting details about the company’s proposed health care plan.

Tropicana management wants to replace the Culinary’s health care and pension plans, benefits the union considers nonnegotiable. Details, Taylor said, have not been forthcoming.

The company proposed an alternative health plan late last year that, according to union estimates, could cost workers up to $500 per month for family coverage. The company has since moved to another plan, but did not provide details at the previous bargaining session on Jan. 10, Taylor said. Culinary members and their families currently pay no premiums for health care.

As for the union’s pension plan, which now defines employer contributions, the Tropicana wants to move workers toward 401(k) accounts.

Of immediate concern to the Culinary is Columbia Sussex’s business plan. The company announced a $2.5 billion redevelopment plan for the Tropicana last year but has put it on hold. The company’s finances are shaky, especially after losing its gaming license to operate the Tropicana in Atlantic City.

On Monday, the negotiations occurred in a tired ballroom where four conference tables formed a square. Taylor and 20 members of his negotiating team occupied three sides of the square, facing a half-dozen management representatives along the fourth table. More than 80 workers, including employees from other casinos, sat in chairs behind Taylor.

Unsaid — but understood — was the threat of a strike.

The Tropicana is the lone holdout on the Strip, and the union has repeatedly compared the tactics now being used by Columbia Sussex to the ones that were used in the 1990s by the anti-union owners of the Frontier, the site of the longest-running walkout in U.S. history.

“No one is going to be left behind,” Taylor said of the negotiations.