Exercising Political Muscle

AFSCME members provided moral — and vocal — support on a picket line in downtown Las Vegas.

By Clyde Weiss

"What do we want?" "Contract!" "When do we want it?"

"Now!"

The litany is familiar, but the circumstances were unusual: Under a blazing sun that sent thermometers soaring above 100 degrees, 3,000 AFSCME members marched on a dozen downtown Las Vegas hotel/casinos in an area known as "Glitter Gulch" for its neon brilliance. But this churning sea of AFSCME green out-dazzled the gaming halls themselves.

Members' voices were raised to help the nearly 5,000 maids, food-service workers and bartenders who planned to strike the downtown properties at midnight, July 1, unless owners met their demands for better wages and benefits. The workers are members of Culinary Workers Local 226 and Bartenders Local 665 (both locals of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, or HERE). They were pressing to win five-year contracts equal to those reached earlier with 22 Strip properties.

HERE + AFSCME

HERE Pres. John Wilhelm addressed AFSCME delegates on our Convention's first day, thanking them for their support. "The fight that we are in with these Las Vegas hotels is no different from the fight you're in every day throughout the country," he told them. "We're determined to stand together — HERE and AFSCME and every union in America that's alive and kicking like yours."

AFSCME members proved their mettle two days later as they marched on behalf of their Las Vegas brothers and sisters. "A contract is all we have, and if we can help these guys, it's going to benefit all of us," said New Jersey health care worker Raymond Wright, a steward with Local 2220 (Council 73). "I know it will make a difference, because we're a strong union, and our presence here shows that."

"This is my first march," said Barbara Morgan, a customer service representative for the city of Harrisburg, Pa., and president of AFSCME Local 521 (Council 90). "It gives me goose pimples just to be here and feel the excitement."

Standing on the back of a truck, Pres. Gerald W. McEntee told the throng, "We say to the workers: Lean on us, we will give you some of that AFSCME power!"

They did, and AFSCME did, and soon deals were reached by all but a single hotel, leading to an eight-day strike by the employees of that one — the downtown Golden Gate. That ended with ratification of a contract on July 9, the last among 35 hotels. The new downtown and Strip agreements, said Wilhelm, are the richest in the locals' history.