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Union-Busters
Make Big Money!
This was written a
couple of years ago, but it's worth rereading. Here's the story of
how union-busters work against us......
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
Thursday, February 26, 1998
Teamsters, Rio spar over consultant
A union effort to organize some workers is countered with a
spirited response by the hotel.
By Dave Berns
Review-Journal
One side views him as a communicator, the other as a union
buster. Whatever the name tag, labor consultant Mark Garrity
has been working in recent months to help defeat the effort of
Teamster's Local 995 to organize Rio phone operators and warehouse
workers. Garrity is known in his profession as a
"persuader," a well-paid hired gun who has been involved
in several battles since 1985 to defeat unionizing efforts at Las
Vegas area hotels.
"My opinion is there are no unions in this country
today," he said. "There are businesses that have usurped
that term and wrapped themselves in that mantle. They approach the
old protection rackets of the 1940s." In recent weeks,
Garrity has met with hundreds of Rio employees, extolling the
virtues of the Mardi Gras-themed off-Strip property, explaining
why management and not the union best represents their interests.
"I mostly listen at this stage of the game,"
Garrity said. "I told them I am another layer of
communication who reports to the executive office and is free of
the politics and restrictions of the normal day-to-day way of
doing business.
Teamster organizers paint a very different picture of Garrity.
They describe him as a slick-talking operator who wins the
confidence of potential union supporters, convincing them to
defeat any organizing attempts. "Most people
think he's just someone in there who's having these (meetings) to
try and keep the union out," said Ray Isner, the leader
organizer for Teamsters Local 995. "Garrity's whole thing is
he comes in with, `I'm your friend, I feel your pain' crap."
Since its 1990 opening, the Rio has been transformed into
one of Las Vegas trendiest locales with its roof-top night club,
all-suites hotel and nightly Mardi Gras parade that appeals to a
relatively young, upscale demographic. To Rio Chief
Operating Officer Dave Hanlon, the Rio's 5,200 employees are among
the best in the business, with many wanting to work at one of the
city's in-properties.
"This has been a preferred place to work with the lowest
turnover of anybody in town," Hanlon said. "Does that
mean everybody's 100 percent happy? Of course not."
Yet, to hear some Rio workers tell it, the nonunion hotel
and casino taxes their energy to the limit by minimizing staffing
levels and maximizing workloads to ensure healthy profit margins
for the publicly owned operation. "The main reason why
we're all getting together is because we're being treated like
crap," said one Rio employee who requested anonymity.
"It's pretty bad the way people are treated. I hope at least
if we don't become union, the management straightens up and
realizes they can't treat people like dogs anymore."
Reservation clerks tell stories of having to ask permission
to go to the bathroom, of documenting every time they leave their
desks to make copies on a copy machine. Hotel
operators complain about answering 140 phone calls each an hour,
and not being allowed to take a break for four hours. When that
break comes it lasts for 15 minutes. "It's very
stressful," said another worker who spoke on the condition of
anonymity. "The reason it's so stressful is because of the
conditions we're working under, but this has changed since we had
these meetings."
Garrity's mandatory hour-long meetings provide him with a
stage to sell his anti-union philosophy to the Rio's front-line
workers. He explains that unions are little more than independent
businesses that are only concerned with maintaining a power
position. "I have an advocacy position in life very
similar to a defense attorney vs. a plaintiff's attorney,"
Garrity said. "Labor organizers in this country are not very
happy in a system in which the other side gets a hearing."
The 50-year-old native Chicagoan who favors cowboy boots
and blue jeans is well paid for his work. Garrity received
$600,000 for his successful defeat of a 1995 drive to organize
security guards at Excalibur and Luxor, according to paperwork
filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. That same year, he
was paid $215,000 for defeating a union push to organize casino
games manufacturer Sigma Game Inc., according to a federal
filing. In 1990, Garrity was paid $81,061 for helping
kill a push to unionize stagehands at The Mirage.
"Garrity gave some insight on how the union would
handle itself and attended meetings where management spoke,"
said Mirage Resorts spokesman Alan Feldman. Martin
Levitt, an ex-union buster who underwent a self-described
awakening in the late 1980s and has gone on to consult Teamsters
Local 995 about Garrity's techniques, characterized the Rio
consultant as a "hired gun," and "corporate
terrorist." "The ruse that union busters
like to showcase is by using the threat of unionization they can
create a kinder and gentler company, but it's all a ruse --
crap," Levitt said.
Garrity, however, said his role is to do just that, build a
more understanding work environment that gives line workers a
greater sense of power. "What a persuader does is
speak for the defense position, and this riles the unions,"
he said. "What the Teamsters are saying is we get to sue you
but you don't get to hire a defense counsel."
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