29
between Barron Hilton (of Hilton Hotels) and Ed Hanley, who was then the president of HERE, at
the Bob Hope Golf Classic early in 1987. Hilton asked Hanley for help on a tax issue affecting the
gaming industry, and Hanley responded positively, setting up a meeting with Rep. Dan
Rostenkowski, a close friend of Hanley’s. The meeting was followed by a successful joint lobbying
effort.
73
“Hanley’s union carried a great deal of influence on Capitol Hill,” the Review-Journal noted.
74
For his part, Hanley wanted assurances that the Vegas casinos would not try to decertify the
union. At the time, Culinary was in the third year of a five-year contract and by law employees can
vote to decertify a union after three years of a contract. Hanley initially sought to renegotiate the
contracts in 1987. In the end, what happened instead was that the hotels signed statements
reaffirming their five-year contracts, which had the legal effect of foreclosing decertification. Four
years later, the RJ continued to single out HERE’s political connections as the decisive factor in Las
Vegas labor relations. “In exchange for Hanley’s clout in Washington, the hotels have rolled over
and died at the negotiating table,” it went as far as to say (in a news article, by the way, not an
editorial).
75
The union thus drew its political relationships in Washington into its relationship with the
casinos, making its contribution to the latter relationship far more valuable. It was a pattern that has
been repeated many times since then. In general, said Taylor, “in most states outside Nevada the
industry is not held in very high esteem, and in order to get certain things done legislatively,
sometimes they need our assistance.…they are constantly under legislative scrutiny.”
76
This constant
scrutiny, in turn, gives the union constant opportunities to help or hurt the industry, and thereby
increase its influence. One situation in which there is political scrutiny is when a gaming operator is
72
Ibid.
73
Las Vegas Review-Journal, November 5, 1989.
74
Las Vegas Review-Journal, November 6, 1989.
75
Las Vegas Review-Journal, June 6, 1993.
76
Taylor, interview.
Convention