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Monday, March 12, 2001
Las Vegas Review-Journal
DEALERS
ELECTIONS:
Union turns to negotiations
Transport Workers Union
loses final vote at Treasure Island by 4-to-1 margin
By SHARON GERRIE
REVIEW-JOURNAL
After suffering a final election defeat at the Treasure Island
Saturday, the Transport Workers Union of America now plans to
concentrate on contract negotiations for dealers at the three
casinos where unions were approved. In addition to negotiating
contracts for dealers at Carl Icahn's Stratosphere, Aztar Corp.'s
Tropicana and Phil Ruffin's New Frontier, Tim Grandfield,
international director of organization with the Transport Workers
Union, Saturday said the TWU plans to keep working with dealers in
Las Vegas.
The union expects to come back again in a year to see if another
round of elections can be scheduled, although the TWU has no
immediate plans to petition for additional elections, he said.
Grandfield's comments followed Saturday night's election at the
MGM Mirage's Treasure Island, where dealers voted more than 4-to-1
against union representation by the Transport Workers Union.
The Treasure Island election was the 12th and final casino dealer
union vote scheduled to date by the Transport Workers Union.
Grandfield said the union was expecting Treasure Island to follow
the pattern of the other MGM Mirage properties, the MGM Grand and
New York-New York, "but not as dramatic as it happened."
"We recognize that these elections are a learning process for
the dealers," Grandfield said. "They just don't realize
how important a labor contract is yet. Their CEOs have labor
contracts, and everyone they work around has a labor contract.
They need a labor contract."
Scott Sibella, president and chief operating officer of Treasure
Island, said, "Tonight dealers at Treasure Island reaffirmed
that the best way to secure their future is to continue to work
closely with our management team.
This vote by our
dealers represents a firm rejection of the need for third-party
representation by the TWU. This union has displayed a complete
lack of understanding of the simple truth that our dealers and
management work on the same team." "We have only been in
this with the dealers for five months," Grandfield said.
"Some campaigns have taken up to eight years."
In addition, Grandfield cautioned, no matter what happens
immediately, the next year for the dealers should be interesting.
Many of the properties told the dealers, "Give us another
chance, let us fix things."
Now the casinos will be on the hot seat to make their promises
good, "but, it isn't going to happen," he said.
Alan Feldman, spokesman for MGM Mirage properties, however, said
Friday that the union movement has helped improve some things
already. While stressing that the union elections have been an
ordeal for everyone concerned, Feldman said one of the good things
to come from the union movement at the MGM Mirage properties was
the initiation of an open forum meeting between the dealers and
management that didn't exist before.
"Meetings have already begun at the MGM Grand between the
dealers and management on issues the dealers have been concerned
about," Feldman said. "The two big issues initially will
be seniority and scheduling." Feldman said the meetings can
be scheduled by either side, and will encompass New York-New York
and Treasure Island if needed. Representatives from Park Place
Entertainment, which held elections at Bally's and the Las Vegas
Hilton, declined to comment on any changes that would occur
internally as the result of the union's attempt to organize
dealers.
George Staresinic, public relations spokesman for the Riviera, was
unaware of any management changes as the result of the elections.
John Marz, senior vice president of marketing and public relations
for Mandalay Resort Group, said open door communication has always
been corporate policy for all employees. In Saturday's election at
the Treasure Island, the National Labor Relations Board tallied
the votes at 345 against unionizing and 76 in favor, with a total
number of 421. There were no challenged ballots and two voided
ballots. Treasure Island had 436 eligible voters.
Both sides have one week to challenge the election, after which
time the Labor Board will certify the results. Since voting began
in January, eight properties voted against representation: MGM
Mirage's MGM Grand, New York-New York and Treasure Island; Park
Place Entertainment's Las Vegas Hilton and Bally's; the Riviera
Holding Co.'s Riviera; and Mandalay Resort Group's Monte Carlo and
Excalibur.
One election, at the Mandalay Resort's Luxor, was canceled before
the vote was taken.
By law, a union must have at least 30 percent of the designated
bargaining unit requesting representation before it can petition
for elections. The TWU received more than an 80 percent request
level from Las Vegas dealers in October. However, during the
actual elections, dealers voted down representation in eight
properties by high margins.
In retrospect, Grandfield said, blamed the downfall of the
Transport Workers Union's election efforts on management tactics
employed at Mandalay Resort's Monte Carlo prior to the dealer
vote. "The Monte Carlo," he said," blatantly
violated labor law with (anti-union) tactics that hurt the other
elections." Mandalay Resort officials deny the charges.
But Grandfield said he withdrew the election petition for the
Luxor before the scheduled vote because he feared someone would
get hurt. Feldman said no matter what the TWU blames its defeats
on, the real reason the dealers voted against the union is that
they don't need a labor union. "Labor unions can fill a gap
for employees," Feldman said, "but there was no gap for
the dealers that needed third party intrusion. If there are
issues, they still have to be worked out through us
(management)."
* * *
This story is
located at:
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Mar-12-Mon-2001/business/15621766.html
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