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It is our mission to inform our fellow dealers at Lake Tahoe
of the path outlined by the National Labor Relations Board toward Union
membership, dispel misperceptions about Unions, Contracts, and the process, and
finally to provide a discreet means of distributing Transport Workers Union of
America Authorization Cards.
"Old Rhetoric"
About This Website And Us
This site is devoted to an issue that effects our
community. It is not about division. It is not
about ‘light side’ vs. ‘dark side’ issues. It is not about any kind
of anger that others claim that we have. It is about
the prospect of an earlier retirement. It is about the chance of
getting sick without
the worry of if/how our medical bills will be taken care of. It is
about getting our piece of our employer’s success. It is not about
getting even with anybody.
There are sound reasons why we wish to unite ourselves. We are not
troublemakers. We are not hired goons. We are your coworkers,
neighbors, friends, and relatives. We go to the same parks, shops,
and restaurants. Our kids attend the same schools. We do not concern
ourselves with what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.
We are blessed with being able to live in
one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and the executives of Harrah’s have been taking
advantage of this. Most of us are willing to sacrifice a great deal
to live here, but security in the workplace, or lack thereof, is
where a growing number of us are drawing the line.
Harrah’s Prosperity
We work for the same company that has prospered for many years. Harrah’s
stock price was less than $15 shortly after Mr. Loveman got involved
as Chief Operating Officer, and has since gone the opposite
direction of our “benefits.” Harrah’s financial success should
correlate to ours.
Gary Loveman’s millions will not benefit the local economy. For the
sake of ourselves and our community, we need more of the money
that’s earned here to stay here.
Our management is doing their jobs very well as motivated by
Mr. Loveman and the Board of Directors.
This Union drive is not anything against our managers or their
ability to increase company profits. They are very nice people, and
we enjoy working with them. Much like a nice player who enjoys their time
with us, wins big and does not tip, their "being nice" does not pay our
bills. This is not anything personal. It is not about their ability to get us to do our jobs well.
A $50 bonus, over the course of three
months, is nothing substantial. Executive
bonuses probably work out a little differently. The root of the problem here
is the system which places quarterly profits above our well-being.
Upper management is doing their jobs of generating profits effectively enough to where we
need to set limits on how policy drains
the rest of us financially. We have even seen many of our long-time
friends move out of the area because of the negative impact that
Gary Loveman’s decisions have had on their lives.
Changes
Why does our current management continue to
make the cuts that they do? They do this, for one, to cut costs and maximize quarterly profits. They also
do it because we let them.
Many of us do not understand what a Union
involves and where it can benefit this community. Do not let the
skeptics distort what our Union will be. They’ll try to make our Union the unknown, but
in reality, we will make up the Union; we are the known. Decisions
made by upper management are the unknown. What is the next cut
they’ll make? Vacations? Health Insurance? Taking our tips away? The
last sounds ridiculous, but
it has already
happened in another casino.
The next owners of Harrah’s
are the unknown. Do you remember what happened when Harrah’s
bought Harveys? Did the situation next door improve when the owners of Horizon bought Caesars? Was this
good for the employees and the community? They can change policy,
and these buyers are truly the unknown. Will they sell off the
properties one by one, only to subject us to yet another set of
changes? If we have a Contract, we have some certainty. Any future
owners of the properties here at Lake Tahoe must abide by the
contracts already in place with its current employees. Again, if
there’s no contract, there’s nothing by which they must abide.
Despite memos to the contrary, the previous buyout of Harvey's
incorporated cuts across the board, from top
to bottom. The connections that many of us have with management will
be lost when our current management team is let go for the new direction taken by the next
owners.
Contract and Security
We want our employer to succeed, and as Union members, we believe that we
would have a greater stake in its success. This is not an employee
versus local management issue. This is about employees having a
greater ability in setting the limits of the executives’
encroachment on our ability to have a healthy, secure lifestyle. This is about employees having a greater incentive to contribute to
our company’s success, and being rewarded appropriately. Sporadic
quarterly CSA bonus checks are not much of an incentive and are
little more than a crumb. We need something that equates more with
security and long-term stability. We don’t determine exactly what
the CSA goals are, anyway. The bar moves from quarter to quarter,
property to property, without any rhyme or reason to us. We do
understand that our performance is compared with last year’s scores,
so we need to bust one year in order to better our bonus opportunity
for the following year.
We would like to invite in professionals to help us to recoup our
share of the windfall experienced by our employer. Harrah’s has a
herd of accountants, attorneys, and advisers to help them to make
decisions to best generate profits in order to increase stock value and
executive compensation. We are skilled at our service industry
profession, but we are inexperienced with employer-worker contracts. We struggle like anybody else to make ends meet, and don’t have the
time or background to be able to represent ourselves with the same
expert assistance from which our employer benefits. The people that
we wish to bring in are merely the ones who help us with the administrative
duties of organizing and negotiating, much like how a professional
athlete’s agent negotiates a contract. The athletes have no problem
with compensating agents for their assistance, and neither do we.
For now, the primary issue is deciding that, collectively, we need a
Contract.
A Contract would help us to bring security to our workplace. As
individuals who pool their tips, we want co-workers who are also
contributors. We want a continued positive work environment and
believe that it can be much better than it is. Even if you don’t
work for Harrah’s, we still need your support. Harrah’s is the biggest
employer inside the Lake Tahoe Basin, and the well-being of its
employees has ripple effects within this community.
Organizing a Union is about sharing in the success of our company.
Mr. Loveman and all of the executives, some at the local level, are
merely doing what the law requires of them. They are required to do
everything legal and within their power to make their shareholders
money, even when it comes at our expense. With the help of the National Labor
Relations Act, we have some power to draw the line where enough is
enough. The only question is whether or not we decide, as a group,
to do so. Should the Nevada Supreme Court rule against
Wynn Dealers
of Las Vegas about their sharing of tips with management, Harrah’s
would be obligated to follow suit with a similar scheme, for this tactic will increase
both profits and stock value.
You will find many members of the media who
do not believe that our union-to-be will benefit the local economy. Please keep in mind how much advertising companies like Harrah’s does in these
outlets, and on how the opinions of those sponsored by our employer
can be compromised where advertising revenue is involved.
Anybody who wants to know the difference
between working a Union versus non-Union job needs to go no farther
than their local supermarket. There are people who work inside the
basin for the same supermarket chains that operate in the Carson
Valley, yet many commute from there for one simple reason: a much
stronger bottom line for them as workers. They are compensated with
better insurance, and certainly better pay - dollars per hour more.
Our Fire Fighters have their Union. Our Teachers have their
Union, and we can still learn by their example. We need our own
Union. A Union brings
democracy into our jobs. We live in a democracy, but we work
under a dictatorship. We would prefer to have a democracy in
both aspects of our lives.
Our Performance and CSA Scores
Our Table Games department consistently scores in the top three in
CSA scores, sometimes leading all Harrah’s properties nationwide. We
do not apply pressure on Harrah’s; Harrah’s applies it on us. We
consistently perform well and are not rewarded appropriately.
We need representation.
Organizing a Union is our right. It is Federal Law.
This is the first step in the process: Complete your
authorization card and mail it to:
Transport Workers Union Of America
Las Vegas Dealers Local 721
2770 S. Maryland Parkway, Suite 510
Las Vegas, NV 89109
(702)476-0648
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