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Wynn Las Vegas,
dealers close to union contract
Union official says sides not far apart on
pact's length
By ARNOLD M. KNIGHTLY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Mar. 12, 2010
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
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Wynn Las Vegas,
seen in October 2008, is said to be close to
a new contract deal with unionized dealers.
Duane Prokop/Las Vegas Review-Journal |
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Dealers and Wynn Las Vegas are getting closer to an
agreement on a union contract, a filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission shows.
The filing by Wynn Las Vegas said the hotel-casino
and Las Vegas Dealers Local 721 have reached
agreement on all issues except the duration of a
contract.
Union director Joseph Carbon said the two
sides are only "two or three years apart" on the
length of the contract.
He cautioned, however, that
some of the dealers are unhappy with some of the
language about tips.
He did not provide details on
what the contract proposal says about the
hotel-casino's tip policy. |
"Not everybody's always happy,
especially with the first contract," Carbon said.
"It's groundbreaking and I think people have to
understand that."
The resort's dealers would have to ratify a final
agreement before the union contract could take
effect.
Wynn Las Vegas attorney Gregory Kamer declined
comment beyond the federal filing.
Although many hotel-casino workers are unionized,
unions have long had trouble organizing dealers.
The Transport Workers Union of America, of which Las
Vegas Dealers Local 721 is a division, last tried to
organize dealers at 11 casinos in 2001 but was
largely unsuccessful.
Dealers at the Tropicana, Stratosphere and the
now-demolished New Frontier approved union
representation, although the only contract that was
ever signed covered just 105 dealers at the New
Frontier.
The dealers at Wynn Las Vegas voted 3-to-1 in favor
of a union in May 2007, eight months after the
hotel-casino changed its tip policy so certain
table-game supervisors could begin receiving a share
of the dealers' tip pool.
The dealers at Caesars Palace also voted for a union
in late 2007, but negotiations broke down in
December.
The news of progress in the union contract talks at
the Wynn came on the same day that attorneys for the
dealers were granted an additional week to file
briefs in the dealers' complaint against the
hotel-casino's tip-pooling policy.
Wynn dealers are asking Nevada Labor Commissioner
Michael Tanchek to find that the hotel-casino's tip
policy violates state labor laws.
They are asking
him to award about 500 dealers $35 million in back
pay and penalties.
Attorneys for Wynn have maintained that the tip
policy complies with state laws and is comparable to
a restaurant sharing tips between busboys,
bartenders and waiters.
The dealer's attorneys have until March 22 to file
briefs in the tip-pooling case.
If the briefs are filed by March 22, attorneys for
both sides will have until April 19 to respond.
Tanchek is expected to rule on the case by the end
of May.
A ruling was initially planned for January, but in
December, Tanchek pushed the date to April because
he needed more time than expected to review 55 hours
of testimony from the hearing.
Attorneys for both sides have said any decision by
Tanchek will likely be appealed, probably to Clark
County District Court, where dealers first
challenged the policy in 2006.
Contact reporter Arnold M. Knightly at
aknightly@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.
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