By Rolando Larraz
               Las Vegas Tribune

While a panel of local journalists on a PBS Friday night show (paid for by the Las Vegas Review Journal) criticized MGM Mirage’s Terri Lanni for talking to his company employees about a political
issue, none of them addressed the fact that the alleged powerful Culinary Union Local 226’s Secretary-Treasurer, D. Taylor, ordered local democrats to not take money from billionaire casino mogul, Sheldon Adelson.

Pretending to be the same powerful Culinary Union of the ‘60s – back when loyalty and respect to the members were
obvious and the order of the day, and pervaded every article of the labor group – Taylor disrespectfully wrote an official letter on Union stationery, reminding democrats who may have accepted, or are planning to accept, campaign contributions if offered, that Adelson is not a friend of the Union.

It is now questionable how Taylor knows who is a friend of the Union and who isn’t, when he is not loyal to other unions that are in the line of fire defending its own members. Adelson should be able to offer his money to those he wants to help to get in office; and those running for office should be able to graciously accept donations from whomever, as long as the acceptance does not jeopardize their integrity and compro- mise their political stands.

In the past, political office-seekers who disobeyed the Culinary Union might lose their chance to be elected. But that is not the case today. Just last January the Local 226 and Taylor nominated and endorsed Barack Obama for President while the political structure of the local Democratic Party took sides with Hillary Clinton. Obama did lose the primary Caucus in Clark County, but no one got hurt.

Taylor had the audacity to go the opposite way of the International Union of
Gaming Employees when he took sides with another casino mogul, Steve Wynn, supporting Wynn’s arbitrary decision of splitting the dealers tips with the casino supervisors. This opened the door for other departments to do the same and even for other casino operators to follow Wynn’s pattern.

Adelson runs several casinos in Las Vegas and contributes enormously to the community, treating his employees with loyalty without spending their union dues; he should be entitled to support and endorse whomever he wants to; Taylor and the Culinary Union should not
interfere with Adelson’s constitutional right to do so.

It seems like the two most powerful companies, Sands Las Vegas and MGM Mirage, along with the Station Casinos, are on the right track as to how they treat their employees without spending money from membership dues. At least one of them, the Station Casinos, gives their employees many more benefits than those properties with union employees.

Day care centers, help to enable them to buy their own home or to obtain credit, and more perks/benefits are part of the benefits package for the Station Casinos employees. The Culinary Union allegedly represents 60,000 restaurant, hotel, bartender, and cocktail server employees who depend on tips as the casino dealers do.

It would not be in the best interests of the culinary members to side with  Steve

Wynn – as Taylor, head of the Culinary Union Local 226, has done –without consulting all the members. For months, the International Union of Gaming  Employees (IUGE) has been fighting Steve Wynn’s rule of taking the dealers’ tips and splitting them with the table game supervisors.

Now the union is forced to fight, not only Steve Wynn, but another labor union, Culinary Local 226; and just last week the IUGE picketed the Local 226 on Commerce Street and Oakey Boulevard and were confronted by a paid group of foreign culinary members in front of the Local 226.

A source close to the Culinary Union told the Las Vegas Tribune that the tactic is to use people that speak little or no English because “they don’t know what the issue is all about” and they think that they are “being loyal to their union” that is helping them to be legal in the country or to become American citizens.

Adelson may give money to any person that deserves some help, financial or otherwise, and not because of party affiliation. During the last election, the Las Vegas Tribune – a republican newspaper – erroneously endorsed County Commission
Rory Reid and later recognized and admitted the mistake, mentioning it several times over the last two years.

Reid, Senator Harry and his son County Commission Chairman Rory, are against getting money from Adelson, but it may be because they know that the possibility of their receiving money from Adelson is slim to none. Former Las Vegas assemblyman and candidate or Nevada state senator, Lou Toomin, once told this newspaper that he is not a politician, but that he is a statesman, and he explained the difference.

“Statesmen are those who work day in and
day out for their community and their district or ward. Politicians are those who work for them, work hard to advance in life and to promote themselves,” Toomin explained. Most of the democrats that have been offered, and have accepted, donations from Adelson and Sands Corporation, are decent public servants and not politicians, based on their particular qualities and perfect qualifications.

They care for their constituents and their district and community. County Commissioners Larry Weekly and Chris Giunchigliani are among those elected officials who were offered and have accepted contributions from Sheldon Adelson. The Culinary Union Local 226 is no longer a decisive factor in controlling an election, and their political power has diminished too much to even consider them important, according to record and the opinions of many of the union members who are showing an open discontent.