Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Hundreds seeking work at Raiders stadium tricked by phony flyer, force meeting delay

False flyer, Raiders

A bogus flyer promising jobs brought hundreds of would-be workers to a stadium authority meeting on July 13, 2017.

Updated Thursday, July 13, 2017 | 5:44 p.m.

A misleading flyer circulated by longtime local community activist Stanley Washington attracted hundreds of people to Thursday’s Las Vegas Stadium Authority board meeting in search of jobs that do not exist.

Attributed to Get Active Foundation and Churches of Southern Nevada, the flyer advertised a need for "5,000 black men and women who want to go to work" and targeted ZIP codes 89106 and 89030. The flyer further suggested a need for people 18 to 60 years old and stated "ex-offenders welcome."

Washington passionately defended the flyer after a meeting in which he received verbal lashings from multiple labor union representatives during public comment.

“I was on legal ground everywhere,” Washington said. “Then it got down to the interpretation of the flyer. Well, what does the flyer say — the flyer says ‘pre-job recruitment signups.’ It doesn’t say, ‘come down and get a job.’

“All the different opinions, they’re welcome to that. The only thing I’m interested in is SB1, people working — I’ll take all the hits for flyers all day long.”

The crowd forced Metro Police to shut down at least one driving entrance to the Clark County Government Center and required County Commissioner Steve Sisolak to announce before the meeting that there would be no job fair. Sisolak said some people traveled more than an hour by bus in the 106-degree heat in search of work, leaving a few on the verge of fighting.

“There was no hiring on-site and it’s unfortunate that somebody took advantage of this and tried to get these people down here under false circumstances,” Sisolak said.

The flyer listed 25,000 union and non-union jobs soon to come online through the stadium, Las Vegas Convention Center expansion and several Strip projects.

Ensuing public comment at the meeting reflected community anger at the situation, though much of the talk veered into an ongoing public argument centered on board member Tommy White of Laborers Local 872 that does not relate to stadium authority issues.