Labor peace in Las Vegas

With a minimum of posturing and theatrics, Culinary Local 226 and MGM Mirage reached a tentative agreement on a new five-year contract Wednesday covering some 21,000 workers in 10 local hotel-casinos.

Although MGM Mirage had already agreed to let the union organize workers at its massive $7.4 billion CityCenter development, negotiations had stalled for several months over the question of organizing workers at a number of the firm’s lesser planned joint-venture projects. That impasse was apparently cleared away in Wednesday’s 10-hour bargaining session.

A new Harrah’s contract was settled in June — its pattern of annual raises and benefit increases apparently serving as a model for the settlement with MGM Mirage. With this latest accord also apparently on the verge of ratification, and the ratification Tuesday of a new Riviera contract covering about 1,000 workers, the Culinary will now have locked up new contracts covering the majority of the 50,000 hotel, casino and restaurant employees whose old contracts expired May 31.

For the most part, that leaves some 10,000 union members still working under extensions while they continue to negotiate new contracts at properties in the struggling downtown, where management negotiators for seven casino properties warned last week that workers will be asked to bear some of the pain of stagnant or dwindling revenues.

The downtown’s flagship, the Golden Nugget, may avoid pay cuts for current employees, though management negotiators warn future employees could start at a lower scale.

Obviously, higher labor costs can drive up prices for visitors. Las Vegans must always guard against killing the golden goose.

But the management teams at these casinos operate in a competitive environment — the best available safeguard against “giving away the store.” These operators get a double reality check every time they examine last month’s handle, and next month’s reservations.

It now appears that labor peace will prevail in Las Vegas for the foreseeable future. And that’s a very good thing for this tourist-driven town.