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Testimony of Bruce G. Esgar When the MGM Grand Hotel, Inc. opened its doors it announced that it was going to be a "non-union" house. However, if the employees wanted to be represented by a union, management would only recognize a National Labor Relations Board [NLRB] secret ballot vote. The MGM Grand Hotel, Inc. was offering to its employees [Cast Members] wages, health benefits and a 401k-retirement plan that far exceeded any union contract in the Las Vegas area. In fact it set a new standard in the industry. Working under this understanding, the MGM Grand was a very friendly and relaxed place to work. Cast Members became friends, and helped each other out, as did the different departments. When the MGM decided to change directions and marketing strategy, they also changed their upper management. The management team that had promised that they would only recognize an NLRB secret ballot was replaced, but the Cast Members were told that there would be "no changes" in its stand on an NLRB secret ballot election for unionism. When the new management announced that they were going to pursue a market in the Detroit area, it was soon followed by the announcement that they were now going to recognize a "card count" by the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226. At that point the nightmares began for the Cast Members. Many of the Cast Members had come to the MGM to get away from the Culinary Union, while others were there to get away from other unions and there were those that the unions had asked to go there to work. The Culinary Union’s history in the city was not one that showed that it cared about the workers they represented or had the power to do anything for them. They [the Culinary Union] had an eight-year stretch of not getting any raises for the workers. They were in a three-year strike against a family owned casino and showed no signs of strength to break management down. [They finally say they "won" when they found a sympathetic person towards unionism to buy the casino after the strike had gone on for five and one half years.] They had not gotten a raise in their pension plan for the workers since 1984, which was 42¢ per hour for every hour worked up to 2,000 hours. The local press in previous years had flirted with the Culinary Union’s ties with organized crime. All though the leaders of the Culinary Union were decrying that they no longer had ties to organized crime, they did seem to enjoy the reputation of organized crime’s intimidation methods of control. Even while the leaders were denouncing any ties to the Mob, U.S. District Judge Garret E. Brown, Jr. appointed Kurt Muellenberg as a Monitor overseeing Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union [HEREIU]. Mr. Muellenberg found and documented many instances of corruption and Mob affiliations within the HEREIU. When the monitor ship ended, and the then HEREIU President, the late Edward T. Hanely, was disbarred for life from the union, the newly "elected" HEREIU President, John Wilhelm, proudly proclaimed basically, "See I told you we were squeaky clean with no ties to organized crime." Yet in April, 2002, Judge Brown has once again appointed Mr. Muellenberg as a Monitor to run and reform HEREIU Local 69, in New Jersey under the civil RICO Act [Racketeer and Corrupt Organization]. When the Culinary Union walked through the door they immediately began telling union followers whom they could talk to and whom they could not associate with. The union representatives had soon divided the workers into two groups, union and non-union, which they quickly labeled as ‘anti-union’. This label was quickly followed by ‘welfare recipients’, ‘freeloaders’ and of course ‘liars’, were a few of the many. When the employees wanted to ask questions about the pros and cons about unionizing they soon found that they could only "hear" about the pros. To find out about the cons, they learned that no one was able to help them. The management had signed a neutrality contract with the union that meant they could not/would not say a word about aspects of unionizing or not unionizing. There was no group that they could turn to seek help. These groups the unions had labeled "Union Busters" and the laws governing them meant basically that only management could hire them. These groups we soon learned cannot advise employees on their own without suffering fines and/or loss of license. In order for the union to collect a signature on a card, we quickly learned their methods of obtaining them. Cast Members began telling each other what union representatives were telling them. Some of these promises, statements and actions union representative made were:
One Cast Member told us that union representatives had come to him and stated that if he did not sign the card his wife who worked at another property would be fired. Another gentleman came to me and apologized for signing the card because union representatives had told him, "We know where you live, we know where your kids go to school and we know where your wife works. If you do not sign the card, ‘accidents’ can happen." While breaking in the Cast Members’ cafeteria, groups of the union followers would come to our tables chanting different slogans. Since management was never sure when one of us non-union Cast Members would strike back, they had security sanding by to calm the situation. [Remarkably, the non-union group stayed calm and did not start any incidents throughout the entire 2-year campaign asking for their right to vote.] The Culinary Union also targeted three of us that worked on the casino floor and had union members from other properties come and threaten us on our stations. Subsequently two ladies were detained by MGM security and they admitted to the fact that they had been sent by organizers from the Culinary Union. Those of us that tried to answer and educate those that were asking questions about the benefits of unionizing vs. staying non-union, had to face daily the hatred from the union representatives and anyone else they could incorporate into their way of "the end justifies the means". For eleven months we had to endure the tactics of the union to obtain signatures on their cards. With less than one month left in the unions one-year time span to acquire the required number of signatures, the union announced they had achieved the goal. To the shock of many of the Cast Members at the MGM, we did not see how they could have gotten the majority of the bargaining unit to sign a "union yes" card. So many of the Cast Members could not believe that the Culinary Union had obtained the required signatures, we wanted the vote we had been promised. We all believed that if we were given the right to vote in a secret ballot, we would win. We also were willing to accept the fact that if the union was right and they had the majority, we could accept it. That was the American way that we all had grown up with, one wins or looses by a majority vote. In order to try to get to the truth of the "numbers" a group of us formed an organization that we called: "Organized Non-Union Cast Members" [O.N.U.C.M.]. We immediately started circulating a petition asking for an NLRB sanctioned election. While circulating this petition, we began to self educate ourselves as to what options and steps we must take to get what we believed was our American right to vote. Through the NLRB we learned that we had little precious time left for any steps left open to us. They showed us a form that we must fill out and even helped us fill it out. We went in search of a lawyer that would be willing to help us. That is when we met Gregory E. Smith, of Smith & Kotchka, who was willing to help us. When he looked at everything that we had done on our own, he stated that he was impressed. When he looked at the form that the NLRB had us fill out, he informed us that if it had made it to an NLRB hearing it would have done us no good. He also was impressed that by this time, about one month, that we had been getting signatures asking for an NLRB vote, we had approximately 900 out of a 3,000 member bargaining unit. But he pointed out to us that there was no provision in the National Labor Relations Act[s] [NLRA] that permitted the employees a right to call for an NLRB vote. He went on to explain that under the NLRA the employer could call for a vote at anytime and that the union could call for a vote at anytime. But the employees that unionizing would affect their futures had no rights to call for a vote. In explaining to us that since there was no right for us to call for a vote, the only option left for us was to file for a decertification. This being the case, we could not use our petition asking for a vote, but would have to start a new petition asking for a decertification. In filing for a decertification we would also have to follow the rules and regulations established for decertification. Again, these rules and regulations had nothing to do with simply asking for our right to vote. He said the good news was that we only needed 30% of the bargaining unit to file. The bad news was that we had even less time now to get them. When we got our 30% in less time than our deadline, we notified our lawyer and we filed for a decertification. We continued to collect signatures on our petition and submitted them on the deadline date. We then learned that we had collected approximately 1,900 signatures out of the 3,000 member bargaining unit. At the local NLRB hearing for a decertification in Las Vegas, we presented them with our petition and case histories that in some cases the NLRB had ruled that as little as three to four months was enough time to get a contract between the employer and the union. We were at about six or seven months without getting a contract. The local board’s decision was based on that they did not feel that this amount of time was enough for the two sides to achieve a contract. They granted them a one-year period to work out a contract. Little emphasis, if any, was placed on the fact that over 60% of the employees was asking not to be represented by the Culinary Union and wanted to vote on it. As an interesting side note, I would like to add that the union was telling their people not to sign our petition asking for an NLRB election. If the union truly had the majority, they would win the election and settle the matter. Why not prove it? When union dues began to be deducted from the bargaining units Cast Members’ pay checks, many Cast Members came to us asking: "How could they be taking dues from them as they had never signed a authorization card from the union?" As no Cast Member was asked to verify their ‘signature’ on an authorization card, there is still speculation on how the union had a card ‘signed’ by some Cast Members. When these Cast Members sent in letters of resignation, the Culinary Union immediately let them resign. The union did not make them meet the union’s 15-day window period of their date of signing the card before they could accept their resignations. In the last Presidential election there are a great many American voters in the state of Florida that firmly believe that their vote did not count on the direction they wanted their country to take. In Las Vegas, Nevada there are approximately 3,000 Americans that were never given their right to vote on the direction that their lives would take. |