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understanding the companies put on what needed to be delivered in this town, the kind of
product that should be delivered.
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Because they needed workers’ skills in a tight labor market, employers were “incentivized” to keep
their workers happy, and in 1989 that meant conceding their demand for card check as well as taking
care of the bread and butter issues of benefits and job security.
The existing union density on the Las Vegas Strip also played an important role in the 1989
settlement. The union’s potential to disrupt the industry and adversely affect its bottom line is far
greater with the majority of the hotels unionized than it would be with only a handful of union
establishments. A citywide strike would attract national media attention in a way that a strike at a few
casinos would not; a citywide strike would mean a decline in visitors and thus revenue for the entire
industry, whereas a more limited strike would induce far fewer people to cancel a trip to Vegas.
Apart from the effect of the city’s unusually high density on the union’s leverage over the
employers in 1989, union density has played a crucial role in Culinary’s organizing success because
the main vehicle for establishing card check neutrality has been collective bargaining agreements. It is
the organizing language of the union’s contracts that has enabled union recognition at new
properties without employer interference and without prolonged battles—and, thus far, without any
losses. Most of the new resorts that have been built since 1989 were built by operators with existing
Las Vegas properties and most, therefore, were covered by the union’s organizing language. Among
the bigger new properties that went union through trigger agreement card checks were: the Mirage
(1989, 3,300 workers), the Excalibur (1990, 2,100 workers), Treasure Island (1993, 2,200 workers),
the Luxor (1993, 2,200 workers), the Monte Carlo (1996, 1,650 workers), the Bellagio (1998, 4,150
workers), Mandalay Bay (1999, 2,800 workers), and the Paris (1999, 2,800 workers). Union density
meant Culinary had contracts with almost all the major casinos on the Strip going into the mega-
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Taylor, interview.
Convention