Culinary stops don’t halt flow of casino cash

But the same candidates have no qualms about taking big donations from the Culinary union’s sometime adversaries, the bosses of the gaming companies with which the union has been negotiating.

Some of the candidates also have taken donations from executives at the nonunion casinos that are the Culinary union’s bitter enemies.

The donations raise the question of whether the candidates’ effusive speeches about workers’ rights are for real or just meaningless ring-kissing. When they rally for the workers while collecting checks from the employers during a contentious negotiation, whose side are they really on?

Supporting the union and taking casino donations does not constitute saying one thing and doing another for Hillary Clinton because when it comes to legislation, she has been consistently on labor’s side, Clinton spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said.

“I don’t think there’s any conflict at all,” Grey said. “I think that her record speaks for itself. She is on the side of workers, and she has an excellent record on labor issues. The people who have donated to her campaign know where she stands.”

Clinton has by far the most Nevada casino money of the Democratic candidates, the bulk of it from nonunion casino executives. Clinton, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson have each spoken to the union twice, while John Edwards and Joe Biden addressed the Culinary union for the first time this month.

The issue doesn’t arise for the Republican candidates, none of whom has approached the union.

Hopes for an amicable resolution of the union’s current round of contract negotiations improved Saturday, when Harrah’s employees represented by Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165 ratified a new contract. Harrah’s is the second-largest company involved in the current round of talks, employing 15,000 union members at its casinos.

But the situation remains unresolved with the largest employer the union is negotiating with, MGM Mirage, which employs 21,000 Culinary members, as well as with several smaller operators. Union President Geoconda Arguello Kline said recently that the company hasn’t shown sufficient willingness to work with the Culinary union.

“The workers, they are not happy right now,” she said. “They feel very uneasy about their future.”

Clinton, Edwards, Obama and Richardson all released statements praising the accord with Harrah’s on Friday. Obama’s prepared statement urged MGM and the other companies to follow Harrah’s lead.

“I pledged my support for the workers when I met with the negotiating committee two weeks ago, and I’ll be there with them on the picket line until every worker has a fair contract,” Obama said, although there currently is no picket line.

MGM Mirage spokesman Gordon Absher said there was no conflict between the candidates taking donations from company figures and advocating for the union because the two sides aren’t truly at odds.

“That’s what presidential candidates do,” he said. “They walk a fine line. They meet many different people with many different viewpoints. … From MGM Mirage’s perspective, the union wants a fair contract, a beneficial contract; we want that too. We consider the union our partner.”

The candidates are indeed doing what candidates do, and that’s pander to a group they hope will be influential in Nevada’s second-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest in 2008, said David Damore, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas political scientist.

“Yeah, it does look, on its face, hypocritical,” he said. “But that’s basically the way the game is played. The candidates need something from both sides.”

From the casinos, they need money, while they covet the union for its ability to mobilize caucus-goers, he said.

Of the five candidates who have come to court the union, four have taken Las Vegas casino money: Clinton, Edwards, Obama and Richardson.

Clinton’s haul of $25,300 from casino executives and their family members was by far the biggest in the first quarter of the year, and came primarily from nonunion casino figures. On the union side, Clinton received $2,300 from MGM Mirage President James Murren and another $2,300 from his wife, former MGM executive Heather Murren, now CEO of the Nevada Cancer Institute.

Clinton also got $16,100 from Station Casinos bosses: President Lorenzo Fertitta and his wife Teresa, Executive Vice President Richard Haskings and Vice President Scott Nielson. And she took in $4,600 from Gavin Maloof, vice chairman of Maloof Cos., which owns the nonunion Palms casino.

Under federal law, candidates can take $2,300 toward the primary and $2,300 toward the general election from individual donors. Contributions from corporations are not allowed at the federal level.

The Culinary union has not been shy about its enmity toward nonunion casinos. Recently, the union fought a successful battle to unseat former County Commissioner Lynette Boggs, a former Station Casinos board member.

The union urges its allies to avoid the Station properties, the Palms, and The Venetian, although it has not imposed a formal boycott.

Clinton wasn’t the only candidate to accept money from executives at nonunion casinos. Richardson recorded a $2,300 donation from Palms owner Phillip Maloof.

Richardson spokesman Joshua McNeil said the New Mexico governor’s “support for labor and the Culinary union is beyond question.” The Maloof family is from New Mexico, and Richardson has “known them for years,” McNeil said.

Edwards and Obama’s contributions came from unionized properties. Edwards got $2,300 from James Murren and $2,300 from Robert Boughner of Boyd Gaming.

Edwards’ Nevada director, Bill Hyers, noted that the candidate had taken donations only from executives at “labor-friendly casinos” and said Edwards had “never stepped foot in a nonunion casino.”

“Senator Edwards is proud to have relationships with both management and labor in labor-friendly casinos,” Hyers said. “But when it comes to standing up for labor, he’s always going to err on the side of the worker.”

Obama, for his part, took $2,300 from Charles Atwood, vice chairman of Harrah’s. Also benefiting from Harrah’s largesse was Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who has not addressed the Culinary members. He had a $2,100 donation from Harrah’s CEO Gary Loveman.

The Culinary union’s political director, Pilar Weiss, said the candidates’ relationships with management haven’t yet been scrutinized by the union.

“We’ve been focused on introducing them (the candidates) to our members,” Weiss said. “At some point, we may take a look at political contributions; but we haven’t really looked at that yet.”

As the 60,000-member union continues to vet the presidential aspirants, it will take a close look at whether, in addition to talking the talk, the candidates walk the walk, she said.

“They were all on message on all of our issues, and that’s great,” Weiss said. “Now let’s take that to the next level, what’s real, what’s not.”

For now, push hasn’t come to shove, Weiss said. With no strike, boycott or other action in the works, “we haven’t crossed the threshold of people balking at the relationship with employers versus employees,” she said.

But should that threshold be crossed, the union hopes candidates live up to their union-friendly words, she said.

“If things take a different turn, we hope they would still be with us,” she said, “that they’re not just fair-weather.”