According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal (also known as "Sheldon's Rag") whether or not there will be a general labor strike in June is down to a 1.3% difference in pay increases.
Las Vegas Casinos, Union, negotiating pay raises for workers. Las Vegas Review-Journal
In a statement Wednesday, Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165 said they are seeking an average annual increase of 4 percent over the next five years in workers’ wages and benefits, such as health care and pensions.
...
The unions said MGM Resorts and Caesars are offering an average annual increase of about 2.7 percent. The two companies operate 18 of the resorts impacted by the talks, and their settlement with the union would set the standard for the remaining operators.
In the middle, the part that I omitted (go read the entire article) the newspaper chooses to make an issue of CEO compensation. This is standard boilerplate for today's modern journalists (NARRATIVE!!!) and it's a really odd play for Sheldon to make. What happens here will effect his negotiations later down the line after all.
It is a little bit telling that the union "expert" that the LVRJ quoted admitted that "4% was probably too high" without admitting that the casino's opening salvo of 2% was probably too low. I would imagine this gets settled at 3% and all of the noise surrounding panic buttons and other issues fade away.
At the end of the day, it's ALWAYS about the money.
And there are no good actors here. Don't kid yourself.
The unions want bigger increases to pad their slush-funds in order to appease those whose patronage is tied to investments made by the pension funds, while there is nothing sympathetic about casino management companies. They have not been acting as prudent operators of late choosing to throttle the customer in return for short term stock bumps.
While yesterday's news that McCarron (LAS) recorded it's busiest April on record might seem to indicate that customer's are bending over and asking "Please sir, may I have another" the fact is airport traffic does not mean that STRIP occupancy is increased. We'll see those numbers soon.
Granted, after the horrific events of October 1st things are starting to return to some sense of normalcy, the rebound from the tragedy is masking deeper problems that should start to manifest themselves in the later quarters of this year, and into next year.
I've already written about why I think a strike would be devastating to Las Vegas and that's precisely the reason I don't think one will happen. A LOT of what the union is doing here is saber-rattling, it's the only negotiation tool they have. In a right to work state even breaking a picket line is not the death knell for one's career that it is in states with different labor laws.
And on one, really, wants a strike. I don't believe that the culinary union workers who voted to authorize one really thought one would happen. I don't think the union leaders want to see their cash reserves drained, and I know the casinos don't want to have their contingency plans put to the test.
My feeling is that a deal gets done today, probably in the wee hours. At least between CET, MGM and the union, which will lead to all of the other dominoes falling.
At that point, possibly, maybe someone will have the smarts to listen to Wolfgang Puck who seems to be one of the few people remembering that Las Vegas is in the customer service business.
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