Tribune Newspaper Proved Union Wrong

Sep. 17, 2008
By Rolando Larraz
Las Vegas Tribune

The IUGE has been fighting Wynn’s policy for the last twenty months and D. Taylor and other high rank members of the culinary union have been sitting on Wynn’s committee to fight the IUGE and the tip stealing of his property’s casino dealers. After September 1, 2006, when Wynn Resort implemented the policy of confiscating the dealers’ tips to raise his supervisor’s salary, the PEST committee filed a petition to overturn this policy. Since the initiative, Wynn has worked on recruiting different associations to join him in his effort to stop the initiative.

PEST was created as the political arm of IUGE to protect the tip-earners’ income by stopping employers’ confiscation of workers’ tips. Las Vegas Tribune has obtained a book with the by-laws and rules of the Collective Bargain Contract between the Las Vegas Hotels and the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 Local Joint Executive Board Of Las Vegas.

Unfortunately, the book is being written in Spanish and none of the people, organizations, and hotels that the newspaper has contacted to obtain an English copy of the book, have the English version. However, the Las Vegas Tribune was able to find a copy of the English version that ratified the opposite behavior of the Culinary Union Local 226, D. Taylor toward its members when he sided with casino boss Steve Wynn.

Article 5 of the labor union contract refers to salaries and wages, while paragraph 5.02 refers exclusively to gratuities, and reads as follows: All gratuities left by customers are the property of the employees exclusively, and no Employer or department heads not covered by this Agreement shall take any part of such gratuities or credit the same in any manner toward the payment of any employee’s wages.

Cash gratuities left by guests checking out of rooms shall be the property of Guest Room Attendants unless otherwise specified by the guest in witting. Except as provided otherwise in this Agreement, employees shall not be required to divide their gratuities with any other person(s), and they shall not be coerced or discriminated against to cause them to do so.

The Employer shall not post or display notices restricting gratuities; provided, however, that where the Employer has special events, sales promotions or other functions where the price charged includes gratuities, the Employer may publish and distribute literature, brochures and tickets for same which contains a notice of statement that gratuities are included in such price, if such notice of statement specifies which classifications of employees receive the gratuities.

Gratuities, regardless of the amount, signed by a register hotel on that guest’s individual hotel checks, or by a registered hotel guest or other customer on the guest’s individual credit card, should be paid to the employee in cash either after the end of the shift or immediately prior to the commencement of the employee’s next shift, provided that, in the case of gratuities signed on a hotel check, the employee must have followed the Employer’s established and published procedure for verifying that the person who signed for the gratuity is a registered hotel guest and is not exceeding his/her credit limit.

No employee shall solicit gratuities from other employees. It is well known that a bigger percent of the Culinary Local 226 is Spanish speaking but it is [safe] to assume that there are some English speaking members that live in their country of origin that do not read, write or speak Spanish. There is more of a possibility that the majority of the Spanish-speaking members are fluent in the English language in order to communicate with
their co-workers, supervisors and managers, as well as with the property customers or clients who most likely do speak only English, the official language of this country. “Many of these associations that have joined forces with Steve Wynn have done so without the knowledge or approval of their own tip-earning employees or members,” stated Jack Lipsman, Vice President of the International Union Gaming Employees during an interview with the Las Vegas Tribune last March.

Despite the fact that several local associations—and now the Culinary Union—have joined Steve Wynn’s efforts to seize the dealers’ tips, it is significant to note that no other casino-hotel has joined the group. Badillo, Lipsman, and Al Maurice, the organizers of the International Union of Gaming Employees’ PEST Committee, visited the Las Vegas Tribune
office back in March of this year to provide the newspaper with a copy of the complaint, the answer, and the cross-complaint against Steve Wynn’s effort to kill the initiative.

The day before the union voted, Steve Wynn announced to his employees that he had made a mistake concerning the tip policy, and as soon as the union vote was over, he forgot his statement and the policy is still in place.
Later, one of Wynn’s executives explained that what he meant to say was that he was sorry he had not implemented the policy at the time of opening, confirming that Wynn was misleading the dealers.

The cross-complaint will take the issue to the federal court, away from Nevada’s special interests, to challenge the constitutionality of the single subject law that has crushed every initiative petition put fort by the people. In a letter addressed to D. Taylor, the president of the IUGE condemns the Culinary Union administration for his actions against his own tip-earning members and all other tip-earners as well.

In the letter Badillo states, “I consider myself one of the original founding members of Local 226, dating back to the 1950s, and the actions you are now taking are in direct contravention of fine history and flawless reputation of the union, as I knew it.”

Approximately two weeks after the date of Steve Wynn’s original complaint, the culinary union jointed Wynn’s complaint against the PEST Committee’s initiative against another union and its own members’ welfare.

“In the culinary union motion to intervene, the labor group stated that ‘the Culinary Worker’s Union must have a voice in the case,’ but in fact the members were never informed and kept in the dark about the union betrayal of the members and in support of Steve Wynn’s harmful policy,” said Al Maurice, Director of IUGE.                                                            [up]