SECRETARY-TREASURER’S

REPORT

Continued on Page 1

Secretary-Treasurer Terry Greenwald
and Business Agent Mike Hoffman
present back-pay settlement award
checks to TI Bartenders.

The Stardust is a major new venture and we congratulate Boyd Gaming, wishing them the best of luck on their new project; but we must negotiate card check neutrality for the new property, including packages for all the employees who will be losing their jobs. Hopefully, we can negotiate language with severance pay, as well as some type of guarantee for preferential hiring rights, should workers decide to go back to the new property when it re-opens.
One of the major priorities of our union is to organize Station Casinos. They currently operate 14 properties in addition to a 15th project having been announced, with future plans for many more properties in the Las Vegas area. This has become one of the largest work forces in the Las Vegas area and they are totally non-union.
We already have one organizer, Geoff Thomas on LOA, who is working on Stations and by the time this newsletter is published, Local 165 should have a second LOA organizer working exclusively on Stations. We need to have at least one full-time organizer from Local 165 working on Stations, as well as two LOA organizers working on Stations with the culinary team. We cannot allow what is becoming one of the largest employers in Las Vegas, with the most hotels in Las Vegas, to be totally non-union.

At the February 23rd meeting, there will be a secret ballot vote for a raise in dues. The cost of organizing Stations Casinos and putting on organizers is expensive, as you can well understand. Additionally there is the cost of per capita tax, which are the dues that our union pays to our International Union, UNITE HERE. The per capita tax at the end of 2005 was $12.30 per member, per month. By 2008, it will steadily rise until it reaches $16.65 each month for every member. Those raises must be absorbed unfortunately by raising dues.
It is also imperative to have a full-time contribution to our Strike Fund. Currently, Local 165 has well over $300,000 in that Strike Fund, but we have not contributed any money towards it in years. Under the dues raise structure, there will be a permanent $2.00 per month, per member going into our Strike Fund. Building up a Strike Fund will show the employers that we are ready and we are serious about fighting to have a great contract in 2007 and in the future.
Among our many victories in 2005 was organizing and signing a contract with Wynn Las Vegas and the Aladdin Hotel. We had numerous other victories in 2005 by winning major arbitrations. Again, arbitrations are very expensive, which is another reason for a dues increase, as it helps to continue fighting our legal battles day-to-day and go to arbitration when needed. It is imperative that we have the finances to pay our attorneys, arbitrators, and court reporters which again are reasons why an increase in the dues structure is extremely necessary.
Among the major arbitration victories in 2005, was in Treasure Island at Isla (the Mexican Restaurant), where management decided they did not have to put the shifts up for bid. There were eight bartenders that filed grievances about that restaurant, as well as the Margarita Bar at the pool, and a High Limit Lounge, where the company did not feel it was necessary to put any of those shifts up for bid by classification seniority. We settled that case before arbitration with eight grievant bartenders receiving $64,000 in back pay and those bars were re-bid according to the contract language.
Our biggest victory in 2005 was in the Rio Hotel, where the arbitrator stated that flair bartending at the Rio was a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, due to the lack of adequate training for the senior Rio Bartenders to acquire skills necessary for them to have the premium shifts. He did not give us a remedy in 2005; instead he asked the union and the company to work out a remedy (see page 7).
Finally, in January, 2006 the company and the union sat down and reached an agreement on most of the issues. The grievant bartenders that currently work at the Rio will receive a couple of hundred thousand dollars in back pay. The Rio agreed to substantially reduce the number of bars where flair would be necessary and re-bid all shifts and stations where flair was not going to be necessary. This way the most senior bartenders who did not do flair, could bid on the premium shifts at the Rio. Additionally, a new flair training program was agreed upon where bartenders who desire to do flair could receive adequate training. Two swing shifts are under dispute, whether or not they should be flair, and the arbitrator will have to decide that issue.
Also in late 2005, arbitration was heard at MGM Grand about the Centrifuge Bar where they require “dancing bartenders.” This was the former Show Bar at the MGM where many senior bartenders worked. The bartenders at the Show Bar were promised to go back to their shift and station and just before it re-opened they were told they were not eligible, due to the fact that they did not have dancing skills. The contract language at MGM required training for special skills. We do not feel that these bartenders were offered fair training and are waiting the arbitrator’s decision.
Again, these arbitrations are extremely costly; the Centrifuge arbitration took three days with an arbitrator, and court reporters, as well as our attorneys. Hopefully, we will get a victorious decision on the Centrifuge Bar.

This week we received a major victory at MGM’s Studio 54. A day-one MGM bartender, Travis Spruell, was wrongfully terminated and the arbitrator awarded him back his job with full back pay. Travis has been out of work and awaiting this award since August 2004.

In closing again, I am reminding you that Stations Casinos is our major target to organize; please do not patronize their properties. Please patronize the union casinos and try to attend all the union meetings and rallies. Remember this is your union and hopefully, we will see you on February 23rd at our next general quarterly membership meeting at the Luxor Hotel.