Header Small Vol. 3, No. 2, 2007 • Page 2

Also, we have something very important to bartenders and all tipped workers, which is the establishing of an IRS Tip Defense Fund. As tipped workers, we have no bigger enemy than the IRS. Years ago when they first came out with the tip allocations, the rates were very fair but with the new allocations we are having major battles with the IRS. In trying to keep the allocations down (and some of them are outrageous), many of you might need to drop out of the tip compliance over the next couple of years. Should you be audited, the Tip Defense Fund will allow you, to have an attorney to take with you to the IRS. If you are not on the Tip Allocation Plan, it is very important that you keep very accurate records. This is not a plan to say you don’t have to declare tips; it is a plan to defend you with a tax attorney when the IRS tries to wrongly overcharge you on your income.

Also, we have something very important to bartenders and all tipped workers, which is the establishing of an IRS Tip Defense Fund. As tipped workers, we have no bigger enemy than the IRS. Years ago when they first came out with the tip allocations, the rates were very fair but with the new allocations we are having major battles with the IRS. In trying to keep the allocations down (and some of them are outrageous), many of you might need to drop out of the tip compliance over the next couple of years. Should you be audited, the Tip Defense Fund will allow you, to have an attorney to take with you to the IRS. If you are not on the Tip Allocation Plan, it is very important that you keep very accurate records. This is not a plan to say you don’t have to declare tips; it is a plan to defend you with a tax attorney when the IRS tries to wrongly overcharge you on your income.

Additionally, we negotiated a Housing Fund. This fund will help many members who cannot purchase a house for several reasons such as a bad credit rating, needing help with a down payment, or possibly that the members just need assistance in understanding the complicated paperwork involved in purchasing a home.

Banquet workers received the largest increase of all times; MGM properties received an immediate 18% raise with the others being phased in to the 18% over the next five years. The two MGM properties currently at 18% will eventually receive raises to 19%. Also, house functions at MGM properties will immediately cap at $200.00 with the rest of the properties eventually raising theirs to $200.00.

Beyond economics, there is a 4-point job security program. Point 1 relates to our language about rights in new

properties and neutrality and that language needed to be expanded. When the Mirage and most of the major new hotels opened, was the time we started talking about megaresorts. That’s when Las Vegas went from the small hotels that have been imploded such as the Sands, Desert Inn, Stardust, Dunes, and Hacienda. We then started seeing the appearance of mega-resorts such as the Mirage, Treasure Island, MGM Grand, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay. Now those mega-resorts are the small properties in comparison to the totally new major complexes such as City Center. MGM Mirage is currently building a project that will house hotels, casinos, boutique hotels, condo hotels, condos, shopping centers, etc. Boyd Gaming will have something similar with their Echelon property and that’s the new way of Las Vegas. This meant that we had to expand our growth language to include the condo hotels, boutique hotels, and everything else on these mega- communities now being built.

Some of these companies have started partnering up with other large investment companies. For instance, MGM Mirage is partnering with companies like Kerzner and Dubai, to help finance these huge projects and these types of partnerships will continue to expand in the future.

The next point in our job security package is about job retention. As all of you know by now, many older hotels and even some not so old, are capable of being imploded at anytime. Although the language is slightly different from hotel to hotel, basically what happened at the Stardust was a fair deal in that the workers would have the first right to come back to the new property. Also, there would be a bonus paid to workers based on the number of years seniority, if the hotel closes to be imploded and you lose your job.

Point 3, which is the successorship language, might be the most important language in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Every hotel in this city has been bought, sold, or merged over in my lifetime in Las Vegas and it will continue to happen. What successorship very simply means is that when someone buys your hotel, they buy you, your contract, your seniority, and everything stays the same. That issue was a big fight in negotiating these Collective Bargaining Agreements.

Point 4 is tremendously important to everyone regarding 3rd party operators. What happens with these 3rd party operators with clubs, lounges, restaurants, gourmet restaurants, and restaurants being run by a celebrity chef, is that it became very tough and almost impossible for our membership to get into these venues without losing house and classification seniority. The longest new section of these new

Collective Bargaining Agreements is Article 20.09. This article gives the company the obligation to notify the union and their employees, well in advance of an opening in these new venues. Secondly, the company must provide adequate training to all the current staff in the hotel that desire to transfer into these venues. Thirdly, if testing is involved, that test has to be transparent and cannot be whomever the manager picks and chooses. Next, a pass/fail score would be implemented so they cannot say one bartender scored higher and give job preference to one over the other. This also prohibits giving a higher seniority number, or better shift in that venue based solely on management preference. Once a bartender or worker gets a passing score, it means that bartender goes into that
venue with their existing seniority and is awarded a shift according to that seniority resulting from the pass/fail score. The next major issue is that house and classification seniority would be maintained, meaning you can bid in and bid out of these venues without losing your employment status with what we call the “mothership,” so you can bid back into the main hotel if there is a shift you want becomes available.

In negotiating these Collective Bargaining Agreements, we worked with large committees that included many bartenders. Also, surveys were taken regarding what our members wanted and needed in their contracts. What was very clear to your fellow co-workers on the negotiating committees was insuring the opportunity to work the ultra-lounges, which are the primo jobs for bartenders. On the other hand, the nightclub jobs were not places that most of our members wanted to work. They did not want to work in venues that were generally open only three days a week, or where they could not get enough hours for insurance. As a result, in negotiations our committees voted to exclude nightclubs although they would still come under the CBA. The ultra lounges were included for bartenders, but were not included for culinary positions due to the fact that the culinary committee did not feel ultra lounges were a priority for their members.

I do want to compliment the committee workers and all the people that got involved in helping and/or keeping our hotels organized so we were able to secure these great contracts. I would also like to thank all the committee members who gave up time from their work to attend these negotiations and get these contracts and many of them are still giving up their time

 

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