6
the industry” in the last 15 years, explained Courtney Alexander, the research director for Local
226.
10
Casino companies have built new properties in Las Vegas at an astounding rate since 1989;
many have also sought to expand outside of Las Vegas. This has given Culinary increased leverage in
their relationship with the casinos on several levels. Most importantly, the union has demonstrated
that it can thwart a company’s expansion plans, costing the company millions in lost potential
revenue. Furthermore, the aggressive expansion of the industry in the late 80s and early 90s left
casinos in debt and unusually dependent on their operating cash flow, a dependence that furthered
their vulnerability to economic action by the union.
HERE Local 226 has also had a set of political relationships and processes that it can engage
to increase its power vis-à-vis the gaming industry. “There’s probably not a more highly political
industry than ours,” Culinary’s political director, Glen Arnodo, said. “By its nature, it’s a political
industry, so every struggle we have, from contractual to organizing, is going to have a political
manifestation in some way, shape or form.”
11
From licensing to zoning, there are a myriad of
regulatory issues, all of which go through one or more political bodies at the state, county and local
level, and each one offers the union the potential to intervene. Outside Nevada, where national
regulatory issues are at stake or companies are seeking to expand into new markets, the politically
mediated nature of the industry has also given the union an ability to help or hurt the industry; and
consequently, again, strengthens the union’s hand in its dealings with employers.
Together these structural dynamics of Las Vegas’s gaming industry have presented the
Culinary Union with an unusual array of leverage points in their effort to further unionize the city’s
casino workers. They have taken advantage of every single one of these factors, strategically
combining them in both organizing and bargaining campaigns. In particular, what they have done is
use their extraordinary leverage to deliberately neutralize several of the obstacles that make
10
Courtney Alexander, interview by author, Las Vegas, NV, October 28, 2002.
Convention