Vegas at Odds: Labor Conflict in a Leisure Economy, 1960–1985

• Notes
• Chapter
• Johns Hopkins University Press
• pp. 209-255
• View Citation
• Additional Information

Notes

ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

1. For an overview of the scholarly and popular studies of Las Vegas, see the Essay on Sources.

2. Films that perpetuate myths about Las Vegas include Viva Las Vegas (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Starman (1985), Rain Man (1988), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), Casino (1995), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Showgirls (1996), and Vegas Vacation (1996). Since the early 1980s, the motion picture division of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development has tried to control images of Las Vegas on film and generally kept moviemakers from portraying the city in an unflattering light. For a good overview of this subject, see Francisco Menendez, “Las Vegas of the Mind: Shooting Movies in and about Nevada,” in The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas, ed. Hal K. Rothman and Mike Davis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 30–58.

3. Honolulu Advertiser, December 8, 2004. As the Advertiser noted, a television commercial that plays off the slogan features a respectable-looking young man asking a hotel desk clerk if wake-up calls can be made to cell phones, implying that he might wake up in a room other than his own. With an all-knowing look and smile, the clerk assures the man that calls can indeed be so made.

4. Frank Scott, president of the Nevada Resort Association, in Review-Journal, March 12, 1976.

5. “An Interview with Essie Shelton Jacobs: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 54, UNLV Special Collections.

6. On Las Vegas as the epitome of postindustrial society, see Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge, 2002), xxvi–xxvii. Also Rothman, “The Future Belongs to Las Vegas,” Sun, July 16, 2006.

CHAPTER 1: THE RISE OF CORPORATE RESORTS

1. “State of Nevada Business Trends during 1946–1950 and Future Outlook,” box 0178, folder 7, Papers of Governor Charles Russell, NSMA Special Collections.

2. Untitled letter of Charles H. Russell, December 26, 1957, box 23, folder 0188, Papers of Governor Charles Russell.

3. On tourism in postwar Nevada, see Thomas Cox, “Before the Casino: James G. Scugham, State Parks, and Nevada’s Quest for Tourism,” Western Historical Quarterly 24 (August 1993): 333–50.

4. On visitation to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam, see Las Vegas Report 1957: A Compendium of Statistical Commercial and Social Facets of Las Vegas, an annual publication of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, box 0178, folder 29, Papers of Governor Charles Russell. (Many of these Chamber of Commerce publications are in UNLV Special Collections.) On Hoover Dam, see Joseph E. Stevens, Hoover Dam: An American Adventure (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988).

5. In 1951, 3 percent of gross gambling income amounted to $1.5 million. For a list of gross gambling revenue and fees paid to the state in the late 1940s and 1950s, see the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce’s Las Vegas Report 1961, 19, UNLV Special Collections. On the value of mineral production, see “State of Nevada Business Trends during 1946–1950 and Future Outlook,” box 7, folder 0178, Papers of Governor Charles Russell.

6. On gambling establishments in prewar Nevada, see Jerome E. Edwards, “Nevada Gambling: Just Another Business Enterprise,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 37, no. 2 (Summer 1994): 101–14. Also, Eric N. Moody, “Nevada’s Legalization of Casino Gambling in 1931: Purely a Business Proposition,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 37, no. 2 (Summer 1994): 79–100.

7. “A Brief History of Gambling,” in Western States Historical Publishers, Nevada: The Silver State (Carson City: Western States Historical Publishers, 1970), 1:51–52.

8. On early Las Vegas, see Barbara Land and Myrick Land, A Short History of Las Vegas (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1999).

9. Magnesium was used in the production of aircraft and incendiary bombs. On Basic Magnesium Incorporated, see Las Vegas Report 1952–58, 18, UNLV Special Collections. Also, James W. Hulse, The Silver State: Nevada’s Heritage Reinterpreted (Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1991), 213–14.

10. On population figures in Southern Nevada, see “Las Vegas and Clark County Nevada, an Economic and Industrial Analysis,” box 1078, folder 28, Papers of Governor Charles Russell. See also U.S. Department of Commerce, Census of the Population: 1960, vol. 1, part 30 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1963), 15, 51. See also Las Vegas Report: A Decade of Progress, 1956–1966, 6–14, UNLV Special Collections; and Eugene P. Moehring, Resort City in the Sunbelt: Las Vegas, 1930–1970 (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1989), 269–70.

11. On manufacturing and construction, see Las Vegas Report 1961, 1–26. See also Eugene P. Moehring, “Las Vegas and the Second World War,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 29, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 1–30.

12. Useful works on the rise of Strip resorts include Albert Woods Moe, Nevada’s Golden Age of Gambling (Gig Harbor, Wash.: Puget Sound Books, 2001), 75–80, at NSHS, Reno; Robert D. McCracken, Las Vegas: The Great American Playground (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997), 53–68; and Moehring, Resort City, 44–52.

13. McCracken, The Great America Playground, 60–63; and Frank Wright, World War II and the Emergence of Modern Las Vegas (Las Vegas: Nevada State Museum and Historical Society, 1991), 28.

14. The Thunderbird also served Mexican dinners twice nightly in its main showroom, the Continental Theater. See “Thunderbird Cuisine,” clipping, box 6, folder 3, Thunderbird Hotel Collection, UNLV Special Collections.

15. On the Desert Inn, see R. T. King, “An Interview with Morton Saiger,” February 18, 1985, 41–44, UNOHP, Reno; also, McCracken, The Great American Playground, 69–86.

16. Michael J. Gaughn, August 21, 1975, Testimony before the CRNPTG, 364. See also McCracken, The Great American Playground, 64–65, 77–78. The sign at the Golden Nugget was erected three years after the resort opened.

17. Las Vegas Report 1961, 6–14.

18. On the expansion of McCarran Airport, see Moehring, Resort City, 132–33. On the tourist count and gaming revenue in the mid-1960s, see Las Vegas Report 1967, 1–10, UNLV Special Collections.

19. On Governor Sawyer’s address, see “Remarks of Governor Grant Sawyer,” in folder “Unionizing Casino Employees,” located in “Union Organizing Files,” Papers of Nevada Resort Association, Las Vegas, Nevada. See also Review-Journal, January 5, 1976.

20. U.S. Department of Commerce, 1970 Census of the Population, vol. 1, part 30 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1972), 13. On water problems in Las Vegas, see Moehring, Resort City, 212–17.

21. Las Vegas Report: A Decade of Progress, 1956–1966, 11–13. In the summer of 1962, licensed gaming establishments in Nevada employed about thirty-five thousand people, more than half of whom worked in Clark County. On employment in gaming, see “A Brief History of Gambling,” in Nevada: The Silver State, 57.

22. On the nature and structure of the Mafia, see “Mafia Monograph,” section I: Sicily, July 1958, iii–xii, FBI Records, at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/mafiamon.htm.

23. Kefauver Committee Hearings, 80–94. The figures on Chicago gambling establishments are from FBI Records, at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/siege.htm. On gambling establishments in Chicago, see the FBI memorandum from the agency’s Los Angeles office, dated August 13, 1963, at http://foia.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=/sidneykorshak/sidneykorshak/sidneykorshak_part01.pdf. The same file offers insight into “mob” financing in Las Vegas. For more on that subject, see Hal Rothman, “Colony, Capital, and Casino: Money in the Real Las Vegas,” 310–18, in The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas, ed. Hal K. Rothman and Mike Davis (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002); and Ronald A. Farrell and Carole Case, The Black Book and the Mob: The Untold Story of the Control of Nevada’s Casinos (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), 24–25.

24. Some casino owners reportedly paid off “hidden” investors by letting their representatives win at gambling tables. On skimming operations, see “Memo to Director,” February 14, 1961, 10–11, in FBI Records on Morris B. Dalitz, file number 92-3068, section 2, part 3.

25. Testimony of Jerry W. Gordon to State of Nevada, County of Clark, October 18, 1971, 1–6, box: Various Skim/Mob Influence Files, folder: Downtown/4/Flamingo Skim, Local 226 Papers.

26. “Memo to Director,” February 14, 1961, 10–11, FBI Records on Morris B. Dalitz, file number 92-3068, section 2, part 3.

27. “Organized Crime in Southern Nevada, 1984, Annual Report to Sheriff John Moran,” 3, box: Various Skim/Mob Influence Files, folder: Organized Crime, Local 226 Papers.

28. “Memo to Director,” February 14, 1961, 10–11, FBI Records on Morris B. Dalitz, file number 92-3068, section 2, part 3.

29. Kefauver Committee Hearings, 91. William Wilkerson, who owned the Hollywood Reporter, sank about $600,000 into the Flamingo before selling most of his interests in the property to Siegel. See also FBI Records, at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/siege.htm. On Siegel’s racing wire services, see report to FBI Director, July 22, 1946, at http://foia.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=siegel/siegel1.a.pdf, 40. For more on Siegel, see Moehring, Resort City, 49–53; Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge, 2002), 10–16; and John L. Smith, “The Ghost of Ben Siegel,” in The Players: The Men Who Made Las Vegas, ed. Jack Sheehan (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997), 81–91.

30. Kefauver Committee Hearings, 92. Clark also invested in two smaller casinos in Las Vegas, the Monte Carlo and Players Club. On Clark, Dalitz, and patterns of finance at the Desert Inn, see FBI Records on Morris B. Dalitz, especially file number 92-3068, section 2, parts 3 and 4 (of 12). On Clark, see also Lester Ben “Benny” Binion, in “Some Recollections of a Texas and Las Vegas Gaming Operator,” 73–74, UNOHP, Reno; also Moehring, Resort City, 74–75.

31. Wall Street Journal, May 23, 1969. The FBI maintains extensive files on Meyer Lansky, which are available to researchers at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. On the Sands and organized crime, see also Farrell and Case, The Black Book, 24–25, 34–35; and Rothman, “Colony, Capital, and Casino,” 310–15.

32. “Organized Crime in Southern Nevada, 1984, Annual Report to Sheriff John Moran,” 2.

33. David G. Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond (New York: Routledge, 2003), 110; and Moehring, Resort City, 244–45. Thomas’s respect for many of the investors in the Las Vegas resort industry is evident in personal letters he wrote to Barron Hilton in 1963 about men who purchased the Dunes from its original owners in the late 1950s. “I know nothing derogatory about any of them,” he told Hilton. “I have met a considerable number of people who know them or know of them, and have yet to hear anybody speak against them” E. Parry Thomas to Barron Hilton, September 26, 1963, box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), folder: Hilton/N.J. License I, Local 226 Papers.

34. On the Central States Pension Fund, see “Like Old Man River: Central States Pension Fund,” International Teamster 73, no. 8 (August 1976): 12–13, IRC, Honolulu. On the Fund and Las Vegas, see Reno-Gazette-Journal, July 20, 1985; and Valley Times, March 22, 1976. See also Steven Brill, The Teamsters (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), 202–10; Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu, 108–10; Sally Denton and Roger Morris, The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, 1947–2000 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 231–33; and Rothman, Neon Metropolis, 15–19.

35. Howard Hughes refused to tap the Teamster fund because he believed it would “downgrade the overall financial image of [Hughes Tool Company].” “Don’t forget that the Teamsters’ Fund money has financed practically every one of the entities in the state which have housed the multitude of underworld personalities who have drawn the mass of public censure,” he told his trusted counsel Robert Maheu in the late 1960s. See Letter from Hughes to Maheu, n.d., Howard Robard Hughes Files, file number 95-211845, part 5b, 50, FBI Records.

36. On corruption and lending practices, see “The Central States Pension Fund Is Alive and Well,” International Teamster 73, no. 8 (August 1976): 8–10, IRC, Honolulu; and “Thoughts of the General President,” ibid., 18–19. See also Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1973; Reno-Gazette-Journal, July 20, 1985; and Brill, The Teamsters, 202–10. For a broader view, see James B. Jacobs, Mobsters, Unions, and Feds: The Mafia and the American Labor Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2006).

37. Kefauver Committee Hearings, 90–94. See also “A Brief History of Gambling,” in Nevada: The Silver State, 51–59. The list of excluded persons initially included eleven men, but the list soon grew to thirty-eight. See also Reno-Gazette-Journal, September 2, 1979; July 14, 1985; July 28, 1985. Also, Wall Street Journal, September 2, 1966; “The Game Is ‘Skimming,’” Newsweek Magazine, August 29, 1966; and Denton and Morris, The Money and the Power, 236–37.

38. Kefauver Committee Hearings, 92–93; Testimony of Peter Echeverria, Chairman of Nevada Gaming Commission, Testimony before CRNPTG, 310; Farrell and Case, The Black Book, 42–43.

39. Sam Giancana was associated with the 1960 presidential election of John Kennedy and with Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. He was murdered “gangland style” in 1975, after being called to testify before a congressional committee investigating Kennedy’s assassination. On both Sinatra and Giancana, see FBI Records, www.fbi.org. For more on this subject, see Farrell and Case, The Black Book, 44–45.

40. Testimony of Jack Keith, August 20, 1975, Testimony before CRNPTG, 353. Also, Reno-Gazette-Journal, September 2, 1979; and Sun, October 18, 1977.

41. Kefauver Committee Hearings, 93; Farrell and Case, The Black Book, 21–28, 43.

42. Robbins E. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics, Government, Taxation, Gaming Control, Clark County Administration and the Nevada Resort Association,” 949, 1545, UNOHP, Reno.

43. Wall Street Journal, May 23, 1969. The Justice Department suspected Chicago-based mobsters of trying to control the Central States Pension Fund but ultimately rejected efforts to prosecute them. Brill, The Teamsters, 202–10; Review-Journal, June 10, 1990.

44. “Business Owes Big Debt to Sam Boyd,” Las Vegas Today, July 9, 1975; and “Boyds Break Ground,” ibid., September 19, 1978.

45. The Sahara was a Strip property largely financed by a businessman based in Portland, Oregon. On Boyd, see Jack Sheehan, “Sam Boyd’s Quiet Legacy,” in Sheehan, The Players, 104–19.

46. David Dearing, “Up, Up, Up: Veteran Mel Exber Sees Vegas Gambling Future as Bright,” Las Vegas Today, January 23, 1979, 7–8. On Binion, see Lester Ben “Benny” Binion, “Some Recollections of a Texas and Las Vegas Gaming Operator,” UNOHP, Reno.

47. On Gaughan, see Bill Moody, “Jackie Gaughan,” Nevadan, September 17, 1989. In the game of “faro,” players bet on cards as they were drawn from a box by dealers.

48. Wright, World War II and the Emergence of Modern Las Vegas, 28.

49. On the evolution of entertainment in Las Vegas, see Dave Palermo, “The Adult Playground Becomes a Heaven for Families,” in Sheehan, The Players, 200–211.

50. The Sands employed a Beverly Hills publicity firm to write a short biography of Entratter. See “Biography—Jack Entratter,” n.d., 1–8, box 4, folder 11, Sands Hotel Collection, UNLV Special Collections.

51. On the Copa Girls, see publicity releases in box 4, folder 1, Sands Hotel Collection. Also, Land and Land, A Short History of Las Vegas, 141–43.

52. On showgirls, see Joanne L. Goodwin, “She Works Hard for Her Money: A Reassessment of Las Vegas Women Workers, 1945–1985,” 243–59, in Rothman and Davis, The Grit Beneath the Glitter.

53. On the Hacienda, see Las Vegas Hacienda Hotel History, a collection of news clippings compiled by Richard B. Taylor, 1986, in UNOHP, Reno.

54. Ibid. In this collection of clippings, see “Opening of Barstow Freeway to End Job of Pretty Miss.”

55. On Caesars Palace, see Cherrie L. Guzman, “Caesars Palace, 1966–1996,” master’s thesis, UNLV Special Collections. See also Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu, 133.

56. On Sarno, see A. D. Hopkins, “Jay Sarno: He Came to Play,” in Sheehan, The Players, 92–103; Moehring, Resort City, 116–19; and Hal K. Rothman, Devil’s Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998), 307–8.

57. On social values and popular amusement, see John F. Kasson, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century (New York: Hill & Wang, 1978).

58. In 1939, to illustrate the point more clearly, producers of Gone With the Wind had to pay a hefty $5,000 fine to a movie censorship board for Rhett Butler saying, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” On gambling and changing cultural values, see John M. Findlay, People of Chance: Gambling in American Society from Jamestown to Las Vegas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 200–209.

59. On Hacienda ownership, see “The Editor Speaks,” October 20, 1956, in Taylor, Las Vegas Hacienda Hotel History.

60. Albert Parvin, the primary owner of the Parvin-Dohrmann Company, had also invested in Las Vegas gaming. On Webb’s entrance into gaming, see Tom Alexander, “What Del Webb Is Up To in Nevada,” Fortune, May 1965, 130–33. See also Alan Balboni, Beyond the Mafia: Italian Americans and the Development of Las Vegas (Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1996), 61–63; and A. D. Hopkins, “Man of the Years,” The First 100 Persons Who Shaped Southern Nevada, at www.1st100.com/part2/webb.html.

61. Webb’s associates included L. C. Jacobson, Milton Prell, and Alfred Winter, who owned the entity that operated the Sahara and the Mint. See Alexander, “What Del Webb Is Up To,” 186. See also Wall Street Journal, May 23, 1969; and Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu, 105–6.

62. The new laws provided that the Gaming Control Board could investigate stockholders with 5–10 percent of the stock of a publicly traded corporation at its discretion. Sun, June 7, 1969. See also Sergio Lalli, “A Peculiar Institution,” in Sheehan, The Players, 18. See also Reno-Gazette-Journal, September 2, 1979; and Edward A. Olsen, “My Careers as a Journalist in Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada; in Nevada Gaming Control; and at the University of Nevada,” 463–65, UNOHP, Reno.

63. Hughes’s entry into Las Vegas and its resort industry is documented in a memorandum from SAC, Las Vegas, to J. Edgar Hoover, December 14, 1967, Howard Robard Hughes Files, file number 46-7004, part 7b, 25-29, FBI Records.

64. On Hughes, see Ovid Demaris, “You and I are very different from Howard Hughes—We don’t own Las Vegas,” Esquire, March 1969, 5–20. On the “secret” life of Hughes, see Time, December 13, 1976, 22–32. Also, Christian Science Monitor, October 1, 1970; Review-Journal, April 6, 1972. Other useful work includes Sergio Lalli, “Howard Hughes in Vegas,” 133–58, in Sheehan, The Players, 133–58; Denton and Morris, The Money and the Power, 266–74; and Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu, 148–52. Hughes agreed, among other things, to finance construction of a medical school for the University of Nevada if granted a gaming license. For more on Hughes, see James Phelan, Howard Hughes: The Hidden Years (New York: Random House, 1976); Robert Maheu, Next to Hughes (New York: Harper Collins, 1992); and Michael Drosnin, Citizen Hughes (New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1985).

65. Hank Greenspun, publisher of the Sun and owner of KLAS-TV, also helped Hughes. See John L. Smith, “Moe Dalitz and the Desert,” in Sheehan, The Players, 36–45. See also John L. Smith, “The Double Life of Moe Dalitz,” The First 100, at www.1st100.com/part2/dalitz.html. For more on Hughes, see K. J. Evans, “Sky Was No Limit,” The First 100, at www.1st100.com/part3/hughes.html. Also, Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu, 149.

66. Testimony of Barron Hilton to State of New Jersey Casino Control Commission, 44–54, in box labeled Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), from folder: Hilton N.J., in Local 226 Papers. Also, Las Vegas Today, August 10, 1976. Hilton acquired 50 percent of International Leisure Corporation in 1970, which Kirk Kerkorian formed to build the International and buy the Flamingo. Guzman, “Caesars Palace.”

67. On the subject of business organization, see Naomi R. Lamoreaux, “Partnerships, Corporations, and Theory of the Firm,” American Economic Review 88 (May 1988): 66–70.

68. On Wynn, see Mark Seal, “Steve Wynn: King of Wow!” in Sheehan, The Players, 174–78. On Hughes, Kerkorian, and Wynn, see also Rothman, Devil’s Bargains, 297, 322–24, 329.

69. “The corporation doesn’t consider the future the end of the current quarter and the long-term as being the quarter after that,” Hilton added. Testimony of Barron Hilton to State of New Jersey Casino Control Commission, 57, 75, 82, in box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), from folder: Hilton N.J., Local 226 Papers.

70. Testimony of Barron Hilton and John Giovenco, in Findlay, Gambling in America, 367–70. On the administration of large business enterprise, see Alfred D. Chandler Jr., Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1960), 7–17, 314–23.

71. Testimony of Jack K. Pieper, August 21, 1975, Testimony before CRNPTG, 372.

72. Lewin, a survivor of a World War II internment camp, had worked as a busboy and waiter in Shanghai hotels before moving to San Francisco in 1947. He worked at the city’s Fairmount Hotel for eighteen years before taking a managerial position with the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco. See testimony of Henri Lewin before State of New Jersey Casino Control Commission, September 17, 1984, 667–71, in box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), in folder: Hilton N.J. Gaming Commission 1984, Local 226 Papers.

73. Colin Dangaard, “Henri Lewin: A Feisty Survivor Keeps Hiltons Humming,” Las Vegas Today, July 13, 1976, 12–13.

74. Ibid.

75. On Hughes Tool Company statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, see Wall Street Journal, October 17, 1972; Newsweek, October 30, 1972; and Time, October 30, 1972.

76. A Personal Welcome from the President, pamphlet given to author by Bill Champion, former MGM Personal Director. Also, Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu, 156, 163, 169–70. Also, McCracken, Las Vegas, 95.

77. A Personal Welcome from the President.

78. Ibid.

79. Ibid.

80. U.S. Department of Commerce, 1970 Census of Population, vol. 1, part 30, 13; Las Vegas Report 1972, 2, UNLV Special Collections. The words are those of James Cash-man Jr.

81. On the growth of the resort industry in the early 1970s, see “Quarterly and Fiscal Year Reports of the State Gaming Control Board,” box 68, folder: Nevada Gaming Commission, Howard Hughes Collection, UNLV Special Collections. See also Wall Street Journal, September 27, 1972; Las Vegas Report 1972, 14; and Las Vegas Report 1973, 8, UNLV Special Collections.

CHAPTER 2: WORKING IN LAS VEGAS

1. Las Vegas Report 1952–1958: A Compendium of Statistical Commercial and Social Facets of Las Vegas, 1, 14, a compilation of annual publications of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, UNLV Special Collections. See also, Testimony of Governor Mike O’Callaghan, August 18, 1975, Testimony before CRNPTG, 304.

2. Las Vegas Report 1973, 34–35, UNLV Special Collections. Also, M. Gottdiener, Claudia C. Collins, and David R. Dickens, Las Vegas: The Social Production of an All-American City (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1999), 111–20; and Robert D. McCracken, Las Vegas: The Great American Playground (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997), 95.

3. David G. Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond (New York: Routledge, 2003), 152–54.

4. On general categories of employment in American industry, see Charles C. Heckscher, The New Unionism: Employee Involvement in the Changing Corporation (New York: Basic Books, 1988), 62–71, 264.

5. Howard Mark Levy, “A Comparative Study of Management’s Perception of Front Desk Service Quality at Casino and Non-Casino Hotels” (master’s thesis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1993), 13–16.

6. Security Officers’ Information Folders, August 1, 1976, folder: Security Guards vs. Landmark, 1980, in Miscellaneous Labor Files, NRA Papers.

7. U.S. Department of Commerce, Census of the Population: 1960, vol. 1, part 30 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1963), ii–v, 15, 51. Median family income in Las Vegas was about $7,000 in 1960.

8. On turnover, see Jamie McKee, “Jobs Program’s ‘Unrealistic Goal’ Falls Short,” Las Vegas Business Press, March 7, 1994, folder: Casinos’ Employment, in Vertical Files, UNLV Special Collections. On turnover in security, see list of security employees at Four Queens, n.d., folder: Organizing of Security Guards (Four Queens), in Miscellaneous Labor Files, NRA Papers. In kitchen and housekeeping, see “Culinary Contract—Adjusted Costs by Property,” folder: 1984 Bargaining Data, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Also Sun, June 2, 1975; July 13, 1975.

9. For an overview of discriminatory practices, see Russell R. Elliott, History of Nevada, 2nd ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), 393–94; and James W. Hulse, The Silver State: Nevada’s Heritage Reinterpreted (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1991), 307–12.

10. Collective Bargaining Agreement between Nevada Resort Association and Hotel & Restaurant Employees and Bartenders Internal Union, AFL-CIO, 1970–1973, 50–52; and Agreement between Las Vegas Resort Hotels and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, and Warehousemen and Helpers of America, 1969–1972, 23, in Expired Labor Contracts Files, NRA Papers.

11. Italian Americans accounted for about 10 percent of the population of Las Vegas in the 1960s and perhaps a third of the names on marquees along the Strip. See Alan Balboni, Beyond the Mafia: Italian Americans and the Development of Las Vegas (Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1996), 30–43.

12. Interview with Mark Massagli, Las Vegas, June 12, 1997.

13. Ibid. Massagli had belonged to the Los Angeles local of the American Federation of Musicians. When he moved to Las Vegas, union rules prohibited him from accepting steady engagements for three months while he transferred his membership from one local to the other.

14. Denise Garon Miller, Oral History, conducted by Deborah Whicker, March 2, 1981, transcribed interview, UNLV Special Collections.

15. Ibid. In the course of her dance career, Miller worked with such luminaries as Cab Calaway, Peggy Lee, Kay Starr, and Andy Williams.

16. Joanne L. Goodwin, “She Works Hard for Her Money: A Reassessment of Las Vegas Women Workers, 1945–85,” in The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas, ed. Hal K. Rothman and Mike Davis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 243–59. Also, “An Interview with Kim Krantz,” conducted by Joyce Marshall, February 26, 1996, UNLV Special Collections, 9.

17. “An Interview with Julie Menard, an Oral History Conducted by Joyce Marshall,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 1–3, 11, 17, UNLV Special Collections.

18. “Decision and Direction of Election,” June 28, 1971, 1–3, folder: IATSE v. Tropicana Wardrobe Mistresses, Case No. 31-RC-1619, 1673, 1674, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers. In same folder, see “Decision and Direction of Election,” June 30, 1971, 2–3; and “Decision and Direction of Election,” July 12, 1971, 2–3. Also, interview with Dennis Kist, Las Vegas, October 17, 2003.

19. Las Vegas Today, August 13, 1975, 22. Like artisans in preindustrial times, wardrobe workers typically took their own tools to the workplace, including needles, scissors, and thread. See also “Decision and Direction of Order,” June 28, 1971, 4–5.

20. Interview with former stagehand Dennis Kist, Las Vegas, October 17, 2003.

21. “Joe Moll: Not Bored Once in 24 Years,” Las Vegas Today, June 22, 1976.

22. Interview with Dennis Kist, Las Vegas, October 17, 2003. Virgil Kist worked briefly in El Paso, Texas, as an insurance agent, before relocating to Las Vegas.

23. “Petition,” Hacienda—Dealer Organizing by Local 711—1969, October 7, 1969, folder: Case No. 31-RC-1232, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers. See also “Petition,” February 26, 1975, folder: Case No. 31-RC-3052 Landmark/BRAC, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers. In same folder, see John R. Frederick, memo to Al Sachs, March 2, 1971.

24. “Appeal,” May 15, 1974, 1–5, folder: Case No. 31-RC-2768, MGM Grand, Dealer Organization Attempt, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers. See also “Petition,” March 26, 1975, folder: Petition for Election—Casino Case No. 31-RC-3141, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers.

25. Marvin Vallone, Oral History, conducted by Eileen Jonas, March 2, 1980, transcribed interview, UNLV Special Collections.

26. Ibid.

27. Interview with Yvonne Mattes, Las Vegas, January 31, 2005.

28. Kit Miller, Inside the Glitter: Lives of Casino Workers (Carson City, Nev.: Great Basin Publishing, 2000), 44.

29. Jenny Mead, Oral History, conducted by Pastora Roldan, March 4, 1978, UNLV Special Collections.

30. Sun, September 14, 1969.

31. Nevadan, October 3, 1982.

32. “An Interview with Alma Whitney: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 1–9, UNLV Special Collections.

33. When Whitney arrived in Las Vegas, she stayed with an older sister who had moved to the city several years earlier. Ibid., 13, 27, 40–44.

34. “Decision and Direction of Election,” December 24, 1969, 8–16, folder: NLRB Case 31-RC-1251, Hacienda Hotel Re. Security Guards, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers.

35. On the conduct, duties, and uniform regulations of security guards, see C. W. Callaham, “Security Guards Information Folders,” August 1, 1976, folder: Security Guards vs. Landmark, 1980, in Miscellaneous Labor Files, NRA Papers.

36. On background of guards, see folder: Organizing of Security Guards (Four Queens), in Miscellaneous Labor Files, NRA Papers. On income, see “Security Guards Wages,” folder: Security Guards vs. Landmark, 1980, in Miscellaneous Labor Files, NRA Papers. Also, Sun, June 2, 1975; July 13, 1975.

37. Las Vegas Today, February 15, 1977.

38. On surveillance technology, see Margaret B. Parkinson, “How Sophisticated Can You Get?” Gaming Business Magazine, January 1981, 6–10, folder: Gambling-Surveillance, in Vertical Files, UNLV Special Collections. In same folder, see Howard J. Klein, “A Systems Strategy for Winning the Security War,” Gaming Business 4, no. 1 (January 1984): 46–47; and clipping by Ron Turner, “Surveillance and Security: An Art in Itself,” n.d.

39. Interview with Dick Thomas, June 15, 1998, Las Vegas. Thomas was head of Teamsters Local 995 from 1968 to 1991. Several unions in the state were formed in the late 1920s and early 1930s, during the construction Hoover Dam. Joseph E. Stevens, Hoover Dam: An American Adventure (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988), 235.

40. These are the words of Dick Thomas, quoted in Las Vegas Today, January 1, 1976.

41. See “Right to Work,” box 1029, folder 9, Papers of Governor Charles Russell, NSMA Special Collections. On the impact and significance of right-to-work laws, see Michael Goldfield, The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 185–87; and Albert Rees, The Economics of Trade Unions, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 122–24.

42. For a union leader’s comment on Nevada’s right-to-work law, see Al Bramlet to Governor Robert Laxalt, January 10, 1967, box: Misc. 1-B, file: Paul D. Laxalt, Governor, Federation Papers, NSHS.

43. After 1958, an initiative petition required signatures from 10 percent of the voters in thirteen of the state’s seventeen counties in order to qualify for the ballot. This provision was “democratic” in that it required petitioners to collect a significant number of signatures in most of Nevada’s counties; it was undemocratic in that most Nevadans lived in just two of the state’s counties. It was objectively antiunion because the vast majority of union members in the state resided in those two counties. See Mary Ellen Glass, “Nevada in the Fifties—A Glance at State Politics and Economics,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 19, no. 2 (1976): 134–35. See also unpublished script for labor documentary, by Guy Louis Rocha, state archivist at the Nevada State Museum and Archives, Carson City, Nevada; and Review-Journal, April 8, 1984. The subject as it relates to Southern Nevada is discussed in Michael Andrew Nyre, “Union Jackpot: Culinary Workers Local 226, Las Vegas Nevada, 1970–2000” (master’s thesis, California State University, Fullerton), 27–28.

44. On right-to-work laws and union hiring halls, see Archibald Cox, Derek Curtis Bok, and Robert A. Gorman, Labor Law: Cases and Materials, 9th ed. (Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Press, 1981), 1076–1082; and Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge, 2002), 65–67. For more on the language of union shop arrangements after passage of right-to-work laws, see union security clauses and “check-off” agreements in labor contracts.

45. On the use of the strike, see Heckscher, The New Unionism: Employee Involvement in the Changing Corporation, 30–32.

46. The addresses and leaders of local labor unions in Las Vegas during the 1960s are identified in “List of Local Unions,” box 6, folder 13, Oran K. Gragson Collection, UNLV Special Collections. The council also engaged in community service work, promoting the activities of organizations like the United Way and the Red Cross.

47. See “Executive Board Meeting, December 21, 1946,” box: Executive Board Minutes [1944–1986], Quarterly Reports, folder: Executive Board Minutes, 1946, Federation Papers, NSHS.

48. “An Interview with Essie Shelton Jacobs: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 25, UNLV Special Collections.

CHAPTER 3: THE FIRST WORK STOPPAGES

1. “An Interview with Alma Whitney: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 39, UNLV Special Collections. On workplace relations in southern textile mills, see I. A. Newby, Plain Folk in the New South: Social Change and Cultural Persistence, 1880–1915 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989).

2. Jenny Mead, Oral History, conducted by Pastora Roldan, March 4, 1978, UNLV Special Collections.

3. Ibid.

4. Senate Report, 98th Cong., 68.

5. HERE traces its origins to the 1890s. In 1970 HERE had 460,000 members nationally, when the Las Vegas Culinary had 17,000 members and was HERE’s second largest affiliate. Local 165 of the Bartenders and Beverage Dispensers Union was the official name of the smaller organization mentioned. See Mel Sandler, “A Return to Fundamentals: Make a Choice,” Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, May 1973, 4; Sun, March 8, 1970; March 15, 1970; and Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge, 2002), 66–67.

6. See Robbins E. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics, Government, Taxation, Gaming Control, Clark County Administration and the Nevada Resort Association,” 1438–41, UNOHP, Reno. Mary Ellen Glass of the University of Nevada, Reno, interviewed Cahill sixteen times between November 1971 and August 1972, in Las Vegas. The conversations were recorded and later transcribed.

7. Senate Report, 98th Cong., 68; and A. D. Hopkins, “Al Bramlet: The Organizer,” The First 100 Persons Who Shaped Southern Nevada, at www.1st100.com/part3bramlet. html, 1–3. See also, D. W. Everett, “Report of Mediation and Conciliation in Labor Dispute,” box 0217, file 28, Papers of Governor Charles Russell, NSMA Special Collections. On Bramlet, see too Sally Denton and Roger Morris, The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America, 1947–2000 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), 367. Also, Rothman, Neon Metropolis, 70–71.

8. Berkeley L. Bunker, “Life and Work of a Southern Nevada Pioneer: Businessman, Funeral Director, Mormon Church Leader, Legislator, U.S. Senator, and Congressman,” UNOHP, Reno.

9. Interview with Mark Massagli, Las Vegas, June 12, 1998. Flippin was deputy commander of Stead Air Force Base in Reno during the war. For more on Flippin, see Reno Evening Gazette, November 10, 1952; and Western States Historical Publishers, Nevada: The Silver State, vol. 1 (Carson City: Western States Historical Publishers, 1970), 316. Obituaries appeared in Review-Journal, January 15, 1985; and Sun, January 15, 1985. See also D. W. Everett, “Report of Mediation and Conciliation in Labor Dispute,” May 1951, box 0217, folder 32, Papers of Governor Charles Russell.

10. Agreement between Local 226 and Nevada Industrial Council, 1957, folder: Culinary Negotiations, 1957–1963, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Labor and management occasionally amended contracts with “letters of understanding.”

11. Interviews with Mark Massagli, Las Vegas, June 12, 1997, and June 12, 1998; and Dick Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998.

12. Interview with Dick Thomas, June 15, 1998.

13. “Meeting with Roy Flippin Regarding Culinary Workers and Bartenders Contract,” June 10, 1961, folder: Culinary Negotiations, 1957–63, in Culinary Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Interview with Mark Massagli, June 12, 1998, and interview with Dick Thomas, June 15, 1998.

14. FBI Records, see www.foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/korshak_sidney.htm. The New York Times published a scathing four-part article on Korshak from June 27 to 30, 1976. Korshak maintained a home in Los Angeles from which he made frequent trips to Las Vegas to meet with owners of the Desert Inn, the Sands, and other properties.

15. Testimony of John Cullerton to State of New Jersey Casino Control Commission, July 24, 1984, 346–47, box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), folder: Hilton—Cullerton, Local 226 Papers. See also editorial by Rufus King in American Bar Association Journal, October 1976, 1224–25.

16. Deposition of Stanley R. Zax in the Matter of Hilton New Jersey Corporation Casino License Application, May 31, 1984, 23, box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), folder: Hilton N.J., Local 226 Papers; and Barron Hilton to Marshall Korshak, November 29, 1976, box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), folder: Hilton N.J., Local 226 Papers.

17. The words are those of Herman Leavitt of the International Culinary Union, New York Times, June 28, 1976. Korshak evidently brought no documents with him to labor negotiations and took few notes during the bargaining process. “I’ve never seen Sidney get involved in details,” as one attorney said of his business methods. “He writes down important figures on the backs of envelopes or pieces of paper,” one labor attorney said of him. To the FBI, such comments hinted of secretive and illegal bargaining tactics.

18. See lists of comparative wages rates in folder: Bargaining Data, Culinary Negotiations, 1970, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

19. Barbara Land and Myrick Land, A Short History of Las Vegas (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1999), 205.

20. Handbook of Labor Statistics, 1980b (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1980), table 165, 412. Also, Michael Goldfield, The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 10–11.

21. U.S. Department of Commerce, 1970 Census of Population, vol. 1, part 30 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1972), 13. See also statistics compiled by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce in Las Vegas Report 1970, 2–3, UNLV Special Collections.

22. U.S. Department of Commerce, 1970 Census of Population, vol. 1, part 30, 4, 30–33. Also, Quarterly and Fiscal Year Reports of State Gaming Control Board, box 68, folder: Nevada Gaming Commission, Howard Hughes Collection, UNLV Special Collections.

23. “Report of the Commissioner of Labor,” 26th Annual Report and Directory of Labor Unions, July 1, 1964, to June 30, 1966, 26–27, NSMA Special Collections.

24. Wall Street Journal, March 1, 1966.

25. FBI Records, http://foia.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=/sidneykorshak/sidneykorshak_part02.pdf, 5–8. On the Governor’s role, see Grant Sawyer to Eugene Maday, September 29, 1965, box 0321, folder 8, Papers of Governor Grant Sawyer, NSMA Special Collections.

26. Address by Lt. Governor Paul Laxalt before the 12th Annual Dinner of the Federated Employers of Nevada, June 16, 1966, box 0518, folder 39, Papers of Governor Paul Laxalt, NSMA Special Collections. Nevada State Journal, October 6, 1975.

27. See speech of Senator Paul Laxalt to American Mining Congress, September 30, 1975, box: AFL—MISC 4A, folder: Paul Laxalt, AFL-CIO State Labor Council Papers, NSHS, Reno.

28. Reno-Gazette-Journal, September 2, 1979. Also, Russell R. Elliot, History of Nevada, 2nd ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987), 355–57.

29. Senate Report, 98th Cong., 68–70; and Al Bramlet to Grant Sawyer, December 20, 1966, box 0332, folder 7, Papers of Governor Grant Sawyer. Also, Review-Journal, March 28, and April 3, 12, 19, 20, 21, 1967; and Nevada State Journal, May 25, 1967. DCA members included such well-known places as El Cortez, the Golden Nugget, the Fremont, the Horseshoe, the Las Vegas Club, and the Pioneer, most of which were family-owned and family-operated properties with relatively few lodging facilities. One member, the Showboat, was actually located outside the downtown area, on the road to Hoover Dam.

30. Sun, April 19, 1967.

31. Review-Journal, April 22, 1967; and Sun, April 12, 19, 1967. Also Rothman, Neon Metropolis, 73.

32. Review-Journal, April 23, 1967.

33. Review-Journal, April 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 1967; Sun, April 12, 19, 1967, and May 7, 1971. Also, interview with Jeff McColl, Las Vegas, June 23, 1998. Employers suggested business in the struck properties declined by only 10 to 15 percent during the strike, but the closing of dining facilities and hotel operations no doubt resulted in a much larger decline of business.

34. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 948–49.

35. Ibid., 1422–23. NRA headquarters were on Sahara Boulevard, just off the Strip.

36. George L. Ullom, “Politics and Development in Las Vegas, 1930s–1970s,” 119–21, an oral history conducted by Jamie Coughtry, 1989, UNOHP, Reno.

37. Edward A. Olsen, “My Careers as a Journalist in Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada; in Nevada Gaming Control; and at the University of Nevada,” 461, Oral History Project, UBOHP, Reno. Also, Las Vegas Today, December 17, 1975; and Review-Journal, The First 100, at www.1st100.com/part2/cahill.html, 1–6.

38. Alvin Benedict of the Stardust was president of the NRA in 1968. Benedict began his career in Las Vegas in 1952 with the Last Frontier Hotel and later worked at the Desert Inn. Joe Digles, former editor of the Review-Journal, wrote several stories for the NRA during these years. Sun, July 31, 1969. Also, Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 1422–23.

39. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 1422–23.

40. See “Memorandum,” 1970, folder: Miscellaneous Correspondence, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Also Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 1439.

41. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 1422–23.

42. Interview with Dick Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998. Local 631 was the original Teamsters in Las Vegas. There was also a Teamster Local 14 in the city that represented general sales drivers. The union of operating engineers in Las Vegas sprang from a merger of locals in California and Nevada during the 1950s. Review-Journal, July 25, 1969.

43. Interview with Dick Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998. Plasters, sheet metal workers, and other groups of construction workers in Las Vegas won pay raises of more than 10 percent annually in 1969 by waging strikes against the Southern Nevada Contractors Association. See also Sun, July 11, 16, 18, and August 1, 1969. On the cost of living, see Sun, July 24, 1969.

44. The strike began on July 24. Interview with Dick Thomas, June 15, 1998; and Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 1437. Also, Review-Journal, July 25, 1969; Sun, July 25–27, 1969. On terms of the contract, see Sun, July 29, 1969.

45. Review-Journal, July 25, 1969; Sun, July 25, 26, 1969.

46. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 1437–40.

47. Ibid.

48. The Culinary proposed across-the-board raises of 15 percent in the first year of a three-year contract, and 10 percent raises each of the following two years. Review-Journal, March 9, 1970; Sun, March 10, 1970. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 1440.

49. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 1438–40.

50. Sun, March 11, 13, 16, 1970. Details of the strike are discussed in Bureau of National Affairs, Labor Arbitration Reports, vol. 56 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1971), 1263–70, in an arbitration award involving musicians, stagehands, and variety artists.

51. Review-Journal, March 10, 1970.

52. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics,” 949, 1443–49. Also, William Campbell to W. Byer, April 2, 1970, folder: Miscellaneous Correspondence, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. The Florida-based Lum’s Corporation had purchased Caesars Palace.

53. William Campbell to W. Byer, April 2, 1970. Campbell noted that a few security personnel who belonged to members of Local 151 of the Independent Watchmen’s Association did report for work.

54. Sun, March 12, 1970.

55. Review-Journal, March 12, 1970.

56. Sun, March 13, 1970; Review-Journal, March 14, 1970.

57. Statement by Governor Paul Laxalt, March 11, 1970, box 0445, folder 42, Papers of Governor Paul Laxalt. See also Sun March 11, 1970; and Review-Journal, 16, 1970.

58. Sun, March 13, 1970; Review-Journal, March 13, 15, 1970.

59. George E. Franklin Jr. to Al Bramlet and William Campbell, March 11, 1970, folder: Miscellaneous Correspondence, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

60. Sun, March 14, 1970. The Hughes properties denied that they alone wanted to defend the picket line clause.

61. Sun, March 15, 17, 1970. In this final meeting, Alex Shoofey of the International, Robert Cannon of the Tropicana, and Al Benedict of the Hughes properties represented management, and Bramlet alone represented labor. The new picket line clause also prohibited workers from honoring lines set up by members of other unions who were not actually employed by the resorts, such as construction workers who were working for private contractors.

62. Sun, March 16, 1970.

63. Review-Journal, March 17, 1970.

64. Ibid.

65. Interview with Dick Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998. Thomas moved to Las Vegas after graduating from high school in 1945. He became a member of the Teamsters the same year, when the union organized cab drivers. He was active in union affairs throughout the early 1960s, and became the first secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 881 in 1964. When the Teamsters created Local 995, he became its head.

66. Review-Journal, March 18, 1970.

CHAPTER 4: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE CASINOS

1. Insights into the size and nature of the nonunion workforce in the 1960s and 1970s can be gleaned from NRLB rulings. See, for example, “Decision and Order,” July 26, 1971, 1–3, folder: Teamsters v. Sahara, Case No. 31-RC-1727, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers; and “Decision and Order,” October 16, 1970, 1–4, folder: I.A.M. v. Caesars Palace, Case No. 31-RC-1508, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers. See also, “Vegas Casino Employees Reject Proposed Union in NLRB Election,” Wall Street Journal, May 19, 1971.

2. Frank A. Modica to Security Guards, October 17, 1974, folder: Union Organizing Materials General, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers. Also, Review-Journal, June 2, 13, 17, 1975; September 14, 1975.

3. Peter G. Demos Jr., Casino Supervision: A Basic Guide (Atlantic City: CSI Press, n.d.), 61–62, UNLV Special Collections. On the skills of dealers, see also “Hotel, Gaming, and Related Occupations,” a report prepared by the Employment Security Research Section of the Nevada Employment Security Department, September 1985, 18–22, NSHS, Reno.

4. Doug Charles, Oral History, conducted by Colleen Seifert, February 29, 1980, un-transcribed interview, UNLV Special Collections.

5. Silvio Petricciani, “The Evolution of Gaming in Nevada: The Twenties to the Eighties,” 224, UNOHP, Reno.

6. Tony Grasso, Oral History, conducted by Colleen Seifert, February 29, 1980, un-transcribed interview, UNLV Special Collections.

7. As quoted in Terri Gilbert, “Divided We Fall: The Unionization of Casino Card Dealers,” 7, unpublished manuscript, UNLV Special Collections. Also, James H. Frey, “Labor Issues in the Gaming Industry,” Nevada Public Affairs Review, no. 2 (1986): 32–38.

8. Ronald W. Smith, Frederick Preston, and Harry L. Humphries, “Alienation from Work: A Study of Casino Card Dealers,” in Gambling and Society: Interdisciplinary Studies on the Subject of Gambling, ed. William R. Eadington (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1976), 229–43.

9. Review-Journal, October 6, 1966.

10. Marvin Vallone, Oral History, conducted by Eileen Jonas, March 2, 1980, 4, transcribed interview, UNLV Special Collections.

11. Sun, February 17, 1966.

12. Danny Kaminski, Oral History, conducted by Brian Corcoran, March 14, 1978, untranscribed interview, UNLV Special Collections.

13. Grasso, Oral History.

14. On controversies generated by tip-pooling policies, see Charles E. Springer to Nevada State Gaming Control Board, May 2, 1972, box 0567, folder 2, Papers of Governor Mike O’Callahan, NSMA Special Collections. See also Charles E. Springer to Philip P. Hannifin, May 18, 1972, and Julian C. Smith Jr. to Stanley P. Jones, October 21, 1971, box 544, folder 19, Papers of Governor Mike O’Callaghan.

15. Silvio Petricciani, “The Evolution of Gaming in Nevada,” 226, UNOHP, Reno.

16. “An Open Letter to Our Governor,” August 7, 1964, box 0309, folder 29, Papers of Governor Grant Sawyer, NSMA Special Collections.

17. Vallone, Oral History, 3–4.

18. Sun, February 24, 1966.

19. Sun, February 17, 1966.

20. An Open Letter to Our Governor,” August 7, 1964.

21. As quoted in Frey, “Labor Issues in the Gaming Industry,” 33.

22. See Gilbert, “Divided We Fall,” 14–16. Also, Frey, “Labor Issues in the Gaming Industry,” 33.

23. Charles, Oral History.

24. Herald-Examiner, January 25, 1966.

25. “An Open Letter to Our Governor,” August 7, 1964.

26. On dealers’ attitudes toward unionization, see Smith et al., “Alienation from Work”; Frey, “Labor Issues in the Gaming Industry;” and Gilbert “Divided We Fall.” Interview with Norman Domsky, February 8, 2005, Las Vegas. Also, Rick Wittway to Governor Paul Laxalt, February 24, 1969, box 0494, folder 16, Papers of Governor Paul Laxalt, NSMA Special Collections.

27. Fyhen was a retired machinist and a veteran organizer. He served as secretary-treasurer of the Central Labor Council from 1933 to 1947. On Fyhen’s life in Clark County, see Ragnald Fyhen, “Labor Notes,” in box 1, folder 1, Ragnald Fyhen Collection, UNLV Specials Collections.

28. On the business community’s view of Hanley, see Pete Peterson to P. A. McCarran, June 1, 1950, Collection NC 430, folder 30, UNOHP, Reno. Also, Sun, December 1, 1965; August 10, 1966; and November 25, 1969. Hanley was also linked to the beating of Walter Vickers in Las Vegas in June 1956. Vickers was a business agent for a union opposed to Hanley and eventually played a role in Hanley’s ouster. Hanley had moved to Las Vegas from Dallas, Texas.

29. Sun, November 29, 1965; December 1, 1965; and November 25, 1969. AFCGE officers included Truman Scott, James Miller, David Bates, Robert Murphy, and Don Emery. Hanley’s son, Gramby Hanley, was then serving a fifteen-year sentence in the county jail.

30. “Memo: Gaming Union Status,” May 24, 1967, folder: Unionizing of Casino Employees, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers. Also, Herald-Examiner, January 26, 1966; and Sun, November 25, 1969.

31. Sun, January 13, 1966. Albert Dreyer was Hanley’s attorney.

32. Nevada State Journal, August 25, 1964.

33. Charles G. Munson to Governor Grant Sawyer, August 11, 1964, box 0309, folder 29, Papers of Governor Grant Sawyer.

34. Labor Relations Reference Manual: The Law and Facts of Labor Relations, vol. 59 (Washington D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs, 1965), 1313–16. Also, Herald-Examiner, January 25, 1966.

35. Sun, January 16, 1965.

36. Ibid. The union’s lead attorney was Albert M. Dreyer.

37. Tom Hanley to Grant Sawyer, September 25, 1964, box 0309, folder 29; Warren Bayley to Grant Sawyer, October 20, 1964, box 0309, folder 29; and Grant Sawyer to Tom Hanley, October 30, 1964, box 0309, folder 20, all in Papers of Governor Grant Sawyer.

38. Grant Sawyer to Tom Hanley, September 4, 1964, box 0309, folder 29, Papers of Governor Grant Sawyer. Also, Reno Evening Gazette, July 31, 1964.

39. See Edward A. Olsen, “My Careers as a Journalist in Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada, in Nevada Gaming Control, and at the University of Nevada,” 457, Oral History Project, UNOHP, Reno. See also Sun October 1, 2, 1964; and Review-Journal, October 19, 1964.

40. Labor Relations Reference Manual: The Law and the Facts of Labor Relations, vol. 58 (Washington D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs, 1965), 1455–59. The board asserted jurisdiction over properties whose gross annual revenue from gambling was in excess of $550,000. The board noted that eight planes a day flew into Las Vegas, while forty-eight reached Reno. It directed elections at the New Pioneer Club, which were held in late 1966. Also, Herald-Examiner, January 25, 1966; Sun, November 20, 1964.

41. “We Speak,” October 1968, clipping, folder: Unionizing of Casino Employees, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

42. Sun, January 6, 13, 1966; February 16, 1966. A rival of Hanley, Bob Feldman, established the Hotel and Casino Employees Union before the election. The union received no votes in the Golden Gate election and merged with Hanley’s organization after the election. Feldman became a business agent for Hanley.

43. Sun, February 17, 1966.

44. Review-Journal, May 12, 1966; Sun, March 29, 1966; Herald-Examiner, January 26, 1966.

45. Review-Journal, April 3, 1966.

46. Review-Journal, May 12, 1966.

47. Sun, June, 26, 1966; July 7, 8, 1966; September 22, 1966; Review-Journal, July 9, 1966. “I left the position,” Fyhen said, “because I haven’t been too close to the union’s affairs.”

48. Review-Journal, November 3, 1966; Sun, November 3, 1966. Hanley was arrested at his union headquarters at 111 N. Seventh Street. The day after the assault, federal agents returned to AFCGE headquarters looking for a gun that IRS officers had seen. They never found it.

49. Sun, November 22, 1966; Sun, December 21, 1966. For more on Hanley’s legal problems, see Sun, May 1, 1968; Review-Journal, May 27, 1968; and June 11, 1968. See also “Thomas Burke Hanley v. Casino Operations, Inc.,” a complaint (Civil No. 1638) filed in U.S. District Court on May 26, 1971, 5–6, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

50. Gilbert, “Divided We Fall,” 11. Also, Review-Journal, June 21, 22, 1967; September 6, 1967; and Sun, June 22, 1967.

51. John R. McQueen to General Nigro, January 1968, folder: Unionizing Casino Workers, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

52. Rick Sommers, “To Whom It May Concern,” n.d., folder: Unionizing Casino Workers, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

53. Digles to Vogliotti, “Memo: Gaming Union State,” May 24, 1967, folder: Unionizing Casino Workers, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

54. Sun, April 19, 1967; and Review-Journal, April 18, 24, 1967. A final blow for Callahan and Local 7 came later in the year, when dealers at a small casino in northern Las Vegas, Jerry’s Nugget, handed Callahan’s and all the other fledgling unions a crushing defeat. See Sun, June 22, 1967; September 6, 1967.

55. Review-Journal, October 22, 1971; November 9, 1971; and Sun, November 13, 1971.

56. William N. Campbell to Walter P. Loomis Jr., October 4, 1971, folder: Dealer Organizing, Tropicana, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

57. Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather and Geraldson, “Guide for Management and Supervisory Personnel in Event of Union Organization Activity,” 1970, folder: Dealer Organizing, Tropicana, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

58. Julian C. Smith Jr. to Stanley P. Jones, October 21, 1971, box 544, folder 19, Papers of Governor Mike O’Callaghan. It ultimately took the United States District Court to settle the tip-pooling issue. In 1975 the court rejected a dealer’s argument that tips handed to him were his personal property and ruled that employers could require employees to participate in tip-pooling systems. For more on the tip-sharing controversy, see Moen v. Las Vegas International Hotel, October 2, 1975, box 0822, folder 2, Papers of Governor Mike O’Callaghan. Also, Review-Journal, April 27, 1972.

59. Sun, May 15, 1974; June 12, 1974.

60. “Union Propaganda,” n.d., clipping, folder: Sahara Dealers Organizing Drive 1974, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

61. Sahara Dealers Association to Employees, n.d., folder: Sahara Dealers Organizing Drive 1974, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

62. Sun, September 5, 1974.

63. Vernon Daniel and Chet Edwards to All Supervisors, September 7, 1974, folder: Sahara Dealers Organizing Drive 1974, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

64. Chet Edwards to Dealers, Baccarat Game Starters, Shills, Keno Runners, Keno Writers and Cardroom Brushmen, September 24, 1974, folder: Sahara Dealers Organizing Drive 1974, in Union Organizing Drives, NRA Papers.

65. Sun, October 3, 1974.

66. Vernon Daniel and Chet Edwards to Employees, October 2, 1974, folder, Sahara Dealers Organizing Drive 1974, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

67. Review-Journal, October 6, 1974.

68. Sun, November 13, 1974; December 28, 1974. Frank Modica was the general manager at the Desert Inn.

69. Review-Journal, November 8, 1974; and Sun November 26, 1974.

70. Sun, December 28, 1974.

71. Review-Journal, January 1, 1975.

72. Sun, April 13, 1975. Dealers at the Landmark voted 94 to 72 in favor of unionism. Shortly after the vote at the MGM, dealers at the Silver Slipper voted 3 to 1 against unionization.

73. Al Benedict to Supervision, April 3, 1975, folder: MGM Organizing Drive 1975, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

74. Al Benedict to Dealers, April 3, 1975, folder: MGM Organizing Drive 1975, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

75. Ibid.

76. William N. Campbell to Top Management of Member Establishments, December 16, 1974, folder: Campaign Material—Dealers Organization, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

77. Ibid.

78. W. N. Campbell to All Member Establishments, December 27, 1974, folder: Campaign Material—Dealers Organization, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

79. William N. Campbell to Top Management of Member Establishments, December 16, 1974, folder: Campaign Material—Dealers Organization, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

80. W. N. Campbell to All Chief Executives, January 24, 1975, 1, folder: Campaign Material—Dealers Organization, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

81. “Confidential Comments,” n.d., folder: Dealer Organizing Campaigns, Frontier, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers. The Frontier faced an organizing drive in 1976.

82. See NLRB Case No. 31-RC-2960, folder: Desert Inn/Organization of Dealers, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers. Marco Vega was the labor organizer. The board also overturned the election at the Landmark Hotel, where BRAC had also scored a victory. See NLRB Case No. 31-RC-3052 Landmark/BRAC, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

83. Campbell to Top Management, December 16, 1974, 4–6, folder: Campaign Material, Dealers Organization, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

84. Edward A. Olsen, “My Careers as a Journalist in Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada; in Nevada Gaming Control; and at the University of Nevada,” 456, UNOHP, Reno.

85. Valley Times, January 6, 1976.

86. Sun, January 1, 1976; January 6, 1976. Also, Review-Journal, January 1, 1976.

87. William N. Campbell to All Members of the Executive Committee, February 19, 1971, folder: Dealer Organizing, Tropicana, in Union Organizing Files, NRA Papers.

88. On attitudes of nonunion workers to labor organizers, see I. A. Newby, Plain Folk in the New South: Social Change and Cultural Persistence, 1880–1915 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 519–46.

CHAPTER 5: WORKPLACE INCIDENTS

1. “Decision on Grievance,” October 8, 1970, folder: Teamsters v. Frontier, (Herman Buskin), in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

2. On the modern union arbitration process, see David Lewin and Richard B. Peterson, The Modern Grievance Procedure in the Unites States (New York: Quorum Books, 1988). Useful articles on the process include Peter Feuille, “Changing Patterns in Dispute Resolution,” in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations: Markets and Institutions, ed. Clark Kerr and Paul D. Staudohar (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994), 475–511; David E. Feller, “Arbitration: The Days of Its Glory Are Numbered,” Industrial Relations Law Journal 2 (1977): 97–130; Michael E. Gordon and Sandra J. Miller, “Grievances: A Review of Research and Practice,” Personnel Psychology 37 (1984): 117–46. Also, Paul Staudohar, The Sports Industry and Collective Bargaining, 2nd ed. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Industrial Labor Relations Press, 1989).

3. On matters of control and hierarchy see David Montgomery, Workers’ Control in America: Studies in the History of Work, Technology, and Labor Struggles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979); Richard Edwards, Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century (New York: Basic Books, 1979); Dan Clawson, Bureaucracy and the Labor Process: The Transformation of U.S. Industry, 1860–1920 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1980). Also, Robert R. Locke, The Collapse of the American Management Mystique (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). On work culture, see Rick Fantasia, Cultures of Solidarity: Consciousness, Action, and Contemporary American Workers (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).

4. Feuille, “Changing Patterns in Dispute Resolution,” 495. In three cases involving steelworkers, the Court ruled that arbitration would be undermined if the courts had the final say on the merits of the awards; see United Steelworkers of America v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co., 363 U.S. 574 (1960); United Steelworkers of America v. American Manufacturing Co., 363 U.S. 564 (1960); United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp., 363 U.S. 593 1960 (collectively known as the “Steelworkers Trilogy” cases).

5. See “Appearances,” October 3, 1985, 9–14, folder: 31-CB-5993, NRA Member Hotels v. Culinary Workers 226 RE: Decisions, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers.

6. The Culinary contract said employees could wait thirty days before filing grievances and made three written warnings within ninety days sufficient grounds for suspension or discharge. See “Time Limits Set for Grievances,” Topics, October 1985, a Local 226 publication in UNLV Special Collections.

7. Agreement between Culinary Union Local 226 and Nevada Industrial Council, 1957, 3, folder: Culinary Negotiations 1957–63, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

8. Interview with Greg Smith, former legal counsel for NRA, Las Vegas, April 14, 1998. Also, interview with Gary Moss, former legal counsel for NRA, Las Vegas, March 4, 2005; and interview with Alan Ware, former business agent at the Las Vegas Musicians Union, Las Vegas, March 8, 2005.

9. Some workers filed multiple grievances, even within the same year. On arbitration and the Culinary, see Vincent H. Eade, “Grievance and Arbitration Trends within the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226,” Labor Studies Journal 16 (Spring 1993): 17–31. The percentage of grievances resolved in labor’s favor varied widely across unionized industries. On national patterns of arbitration, see Feuille, “Changing Patterns in Dispute Resolution,” 494–95.

10. “Decision and Award,” September 19, 1975, 3–9, folder: Circus Circus v. Culinary, Arbitration Award, Maldonado/Brough Discharges, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers. See also “Opinion and Award,” July 9, 1975, 1–8, folder: Bartenders v. MGM Grand, Award—Leo Kotin, Jack Brady Discharge, in Arbitration Files; in same folder, see “Post-Hearing Statement of the Company,” n.d., 1–4.

11. “Opinion and Award,” March 27, 1967, folder: Thunderbird-Fillizola, John-1976-Won, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers.

12. Ibid.

13. See grievance reports of switchboard operators, box 3, folder 13, Oran K. Gragson Collection, UNLV Special Collections.

14. See “Opinion and Award,” June 24, 1968, box 3, folder 13, Oran K. Gragson Collection.

15. Ibid.

16. Grievance reports of switchboard operators, box 3, folder 13, Oran K. Gragson Collection.

17. “Award,” July 29, 1971, 1–3, folder: Sands-Durant, Noel-1971-Won, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers.

18. “Post-Hearing Brief of the Hotel,” July 6, 1971, 1–4, Culinary v. Sands, Brief and Award, Noel Durant—Discharge, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

19. Ibid. Durant had received four months of unemployment compensation.

20. “Post-Hearing Brief of the Hotel,” November 17, 1970, folder: Culinary v. Sahara, Briefs and Award, Anthony Sarmiento—Discharge, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

21. “Union’s Brief,” November 17, 1970, folder: Culinary v. Sahara, Briefs and Award, Anthony Sarmiento—Discharge, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

22. “Opinion and Award,” December 3, 1970, folder: Sahara-Sarmiento, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers.

23. “Opinion and Award,” June 20, 1972, folder: Dunes-DeJarnette, Ruth-1972-Lost, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers.

24. Ibid.

25. “Award of the Arbitrator,” October 4, 1974, Desert Inn-Corrow, Gail-1974-Lost, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid.

28. Collective Bargaining Agreement between NRA and Culinary and Bartenders Union, 1970–1973, 29, in Expired Labor Contracts, NRA Papers.

29. “Post-Hearing Brief Statement of the Company,” n.d., folder: Culinary v. Frontier Hotel—Elaine Hallusco, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

30. Ibid.

31. “Memorandum Decision and Award,” August 19, 1969, folder: Frontier-Hallusco, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers.

32. “Post-Hearing Statement of the Hotel,” n.d., folder: Culinary v. MGM Grand—Discharge of Turner Moore, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

33. “Arbitration Opinion and Award,” February 26, 1977, folder: MGM-Moore, Turner-1977-Won, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers.

34. See Fantasia, Cultures of Solidarity, 78–81.

35. “Brief on Behalf of the Union,” April 20, 1979, 41–43, 113, folder: Musicians v. NRA and Summa, Case No. 31-CB-2368 and 310CA-6306, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers.

36. “Opinion and Award,” July 16, 1973, folder: Musicians v. Landmark, Opinion and Award, RE: Chuck Kovacs Trio, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

37. Ibid.

38. “Agreement between Fremont Hotel and Culinary Union, 1967,” 10–11, folder: Culinary Negotiations, 1967, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

39. “Decision and Award,” March 30, 1970, folder: Dunes-General-Cocktail Boots-Lost, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers.

40. Ibid.

41. Ibid.

42. Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Culinary Workers Union and Resort Hotels, 1964–1967, 7, Culinary Negotiations, 1967, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. See also, Collective Bargaining Agreement between Nevada Resort Association and Culinary Union, 1970–1973, 26–27, in Expired Labor Contracts, NRA Papers.

43. “Opinion and Award,” October 26, 1976, folder: MGM-Hamamura, Billie Jo-1976-Won, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers.

44. See “Rules and Posting,” in Collective Bargaining Agreement between NRA and Culinary and Bartenders Union, 1970–1973, 45.

45. “Opinion and Award,” October 26, 1976, folder: MGM-Hamamura, Billie Joe-1976-Won, in Arbitration Awards, Local 226 Papers. See also “Uniforms and Facilities,” in Collective Bargaining Agreement Between NRA and Culinary and Bartenders Union, 1970–1973, 39.

46. “Opinion and Award,” October 26, 1976.

47. “Award and Opinion of the Arbitrator,” October 9, 1970, folder: M. Duca v. Frontier, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

48. Ibid. See also “Post-Hearing Brief of the Hotel, September 26, 1970,” in same folder and file.

49. “Award,” November 12, 1981, MGM Grand Hotel vs. Teamsters Union, Beards, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

50. “Security Guards vs. Landmark, 1980,” see “Uniform Regulations,” August 1, 1980, 1–2, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

51. “Opinion and Award,” September 29, 1978, Teamsters v. Showboat, Award—Richard Basile, Stanley Laird Grievance, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

52. “Post-Hearing Brief of the Hotel,” n.d., folder: Teamsters v. Showboat, Award—Richard Basile, Stanley Laird Grievance, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers.

53. “Opinion and Award,” September 29, 1978.

54. On the courts and the arbitration process, see Arthur A. Sloane and Fred Witney, Labor Relations, 5th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall, 1985), 240–42.

55. “Order Denying Motion to Confirm Arbitrator’s Award and Granting Motion for Summary Judgement,” March 30, 1986, folder: Case No. CV-LV-83-853-LDG, Aladdin Hotel v. Culinary Union Local 226, in Court Cases Files, NRA Papers.

CHAPTER 6: FIGHTING FOR EQUAL RIGHTS

1. For an overview of the literature on struggles over discriminatory employment practices, see Essay on Sources.

2. On the history of African Americans in Southern Nevada during the postwar years, see Elizabeth Nelson Patrick, “The Black Experience in Southern Nevada,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 22, no. 2 (Summer 1979): 128–40; Earnest Bracey, “The African Americans,” in The Peoples of Las Vegas: One City, Many Faces, ed. Jerry Simich and Thomas Wright (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2005), 78–97. On women in the resort industry, see Claytee D. White, “The Roles of African American Women in the Las Vegas Gaming Industry, 1940–1980,” master’s thesis, UNLV Special Collections. For a good general perspective, Eugene P. Moehring’s Resort City in the Sunbelt: Las Vegas, 1930–1970 (Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1989), 173–202. On African Americans in the area in more recent times, M. Gottdiener, Claudia C. Collins, and David R. Dickens, Las Vegas: The Social Production of an All-American City (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1999), 16, 103–4.

3. Review-Journal, August 24, 1980.

4. Arlone Scott, Oral Interview, conducted by Glen Ette Davis, June 3, 1975, transcribed interview, UNLV Special Collections.

5. On the significance of housing conditions in black communities, see Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 33–88.

6. “An Interview with Lucille Bryant: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 20, UNLV Special Collections.

7. On descriptions of the Westside, see “An Interview with Sarann Preddy: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1998, 8, UNLV Special Collections. See also, “McWilliams Townsite, 1905–1980,” folder: “Westside,” in Vertical Files, UNLV Specials Collections; “Pioneers and Settlers,” in Nevada Black History Yesterday and Today, clipping, box 1, folder 7, Alice Key Collection, UNLV Special Collections. In addition, Roosevelt Fitzgerald, “The Evolution of a Black Community in Las Vegas: 1905–1940,” Nevada Public Affairs Review, no. 2 (1987): 23–28.

8. Moehring, Resort City, 178–79. See also, “Pioneers and Settlers,” in Nevada Black History Yesterday and Today, 7.

9. “An Interview with Viola Johnson: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 1–5, UNLV Special Collections.

10. Ibid., 6–9.

11. Ibid., 9–11. Johnson had six children at the time.

12. Ibid., 1–2, 18.

13. In the early 1960s, there were roughly two thousand black workers in Las Vegas hotels. See John Tofano, “Employment Discrimination in Strip Casinos: The Prima Facie Case,” unpublished article, folder: Consent Decree—Employment Discrimination in Strip Casinos, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers. According to Tofano, there were thirty-six hundred black workers in resorts in 1971, when the industry’s total workforce was around twenty thousand.

14. Perry Bruce Kaufman, “The Best City of Them All: A History of Las Vegas, 1930–1960” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1974), 350–55. Also, Lubertha Johnson, “Civil Rights Efforts in Las Vegas: 1940s-1960s,” 31–32, UNOHP, Reno; Moehring, Resort City, 176.

15. Timothy Wagner, Oral Interview, conducted by Melvin Carter, February 23, 1980, transcribed interview, UNLV Special Collections.

16. Mrs. Arlone Scott, Oral Interview, conducted by Glen Ette Davis, June 3, 1975, transcribed interview, UNLV Special Collections.

17. “An Interview with Sarann Preddy,” 8.

18. Moehring, Resort City, 173–75, 184.

19. Elmer R. Rusco, “The Civil Rights Movement in Nevada,” Nevada Public Affairs Review, no. 2 (1987): 76.

20. Clarence Ray, Black Politics and Gaming in Las Vegas, 1920s-1980s (Reno: UNOHP, 1991), 90–91.

21. James McMillan, Fighting Back: A Life in the Struggle for Civil Rights (Reno: UNOHP, 1998), 92–94.

22. Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge, 2002), 130. Review-Journal, “James B. McMillan,” The First 100 Persons Who Shaped Southern Nevada, at www.1st100.com/part2/mcmillan.html, 4–5.

23. “Report on First Hearing of Equal Rights Commission,” July 15, 1961, box 1, folder 18, Donald Clark Collection, UNLV Special Collections. On incidents of discrimination, see Harold D. Burt to Donald M. Clark, September 21, 1961, box 1, folder 5, and Tom Juanarena to Southern Nevada Human Relations Commission, November 9, 1960, box 1, folder 4, both in Donald Clark Collection, UNLV Special Collections.

24. Donald Clark to Robert Brown, October 14, 1961, box 1, folder 5, Donald Clark Collection.

25. Donald Clark to Robert L. Brown, March 23, 1962, box 1, folder 5, Donald Clark Collection.

26. On the weaknesses of the state’s Equal Rights Commission, see Elmer R. Rusco, “Racial Discrimination in Employment in Nevada: A Continuing Problem,” Government Research Newsletter 11, no. 5 (February 1973), UNLV Special Collections. Neither of the Commission’s two members was salaried in 1962.

27. Donald Clark to Robert L. Brown, October 14, 1962, box 1, folder 5, Donald Clark Collection.

28. Donald Clark to Norman Brown, March 23, 1962, box CR7C, folder: Donald Clark Collection, Elmer Rusco Collection, NSHS, Reno.

29. Interview with Charles Kellar, September 20, 1991, box CR9, folder: Charles Kellar, NSHS, Reno. The First 100, at www.1st100.com/part2/kellar.html, 1–4.

30. Reverend Donald Clark to Clarence Horton, January 11, 1962, box CR7C, folder: Donald Clark Collection, Elmer Rusco Collection. The First 100, 4–5.

31. Gottdiener et. al., Las Vegas, 95, 104. See also Moehring, Resort City, 184–90.

32. Rusco, “The Civil Rights Movement in Nevada,” 75–80.

33. Sun, July 22, 1963.

34. See report by Nevada Tuberculosis and Health Association, “Operation Independence,” June 1, 1963, box 2, folder 14, Donald Clark Collection. See also, “Survey for Operation Independence,” February 1965, box NC 692, UNOHP, Reno.

35. Sun, April 6, 1965. Also, Nevada State Journal, March 31, 1965.

36. Review-Journal, July 27, 1967.

37. Review-Journal, November 16, 1969. Dave McGinty headed Local 525.

38. “An Interview with Alma Whitney: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 31–33, UNLV Special Collections. Also, George W. Hardbeck, “Impact of the Nevada Consent Decree,” Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 14, no. 3 (1973): 15–16.

39. “An Interview with Alma Whitney,” 33.

40. Commission on Equal Rights of Citizens to Paul Laxalt, “Report to the Honorable Paul Laxalt,” n.d., folder: Miscellaneous, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers. The report was likely written in November 1969; its authors attached a separate letter to the report dated November 14, 1969.

41. “An Interview with Essie Shelton Jacobs: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 31–33, UNLV Special Collections.

42. Ibid., 17, 31–34, 48. Jacobs also liked Joe Hays, a white officer who oversaw matters relating to her own department. “When Joe was in there, everybody to me was treated equal,” she said. She also recognized the contribution of stewards Sarah Hughes, Amos Knight, Rachel Coleman, and Addie Mackmoore.

43. Statement of Lt. Governor Paul Laxalt, March 18, 1965, box 024, folder 0321, Papers of Governor Paul Laxalt, NSMA Special Collections.

44. See “Solutions Conference, Report of Proceedings,” 1–5, box 11, folder 3, Oran K. Gragson Collection, UNLV Special Collections.

45. Ibid. On Woodrow Wilson, see box 001, folder 0893, Papers of Governor Robert List, NSMA Special Collections.

46. Ibid., 17–21.

47. The Stardust, for example, hired African Americans in positions that had previously been closed to them. See “Information Report” by Sgt. John L. Conner, May 20, 1968, box 9, folder 2, Oran Gragson Collection.

48. Charles A. Kellar to Commission on Equal Rights of Citizens, State of Nevada, March 28, 1968, folder: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) General Correspondence, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers. Kellar also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board accusing parties of violating civil rights legislation; see Moehring, Resort City, 190.

49. Commission on Equal Rights of Citizens to Paul Laxalt, “Report to the Honorable Paul Laxalt,” n.d.

50. Sun, February 1, 1969.

51. See Herald-Examiner, October 7, 1969; Los Angeles Times, October 8, 1969; and Sun, October 6 and 7, 1969. See also, Moehring, Resort City, 192–93.

52. Hardbeck, “Impact of the Nevada Consent Decree,” 11–13.

53. Robbins Cahill to Paul Laxalt, November 19, 1969, folder: NAACP General Correspondence, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers. See also, The First 100, 3–4.

54. Robbins Cahill to Nevada Resort Association, December 10, 1969, folder: NAACP General Correspondence, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers.

55. Ibid. See also Alvin Benedict to Charles Kellar, January 30, 1970, folder: NAACP General Correspondence, in Black Consent Decree, NRA Papers; and Hardbeck, “Impact of the Nevada Consent Decree,” 12; and Moehring, Resort City, 198.

56. Charles Kellar to Alvin Benedict, February 4, 1970, folder: NAACP General Correspondence, Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers.

57. Jerris Leonard to William Campbell et al., December 10, 1970, folder: Consent Decree Implementation—Correspondence, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers.

58. Ibid.

59. On the Consent Decree, see Jeffrey J. Sallaz, “Civil Rights and Employment Equity in Las Vegas Casinos: The Failed Enforcement of the Casino Consent Decree, 1971–1986,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 47, no. 4 (2004): 283–99. Also, Nevada Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, “The Impact of Two Consent Decrees on Employment at Major Hotel/Casinos in Nevada,” NSHS, Reno; Hardbeck, “Impact of the Nevada Consent Decree,” 11–16; and “Casino Consent Decree,” box 1, folder 6, Elmer Rusco Collection, UNLV Special Collections.

60. William Campbell to Mike O’Callaghan, August 7, 1973, folder: Consent Decree Implementation—Correspondence, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers.

61. Stuart P. Herman to William Campbell, n.d., folder: Consent Decree Implementation—Correspondence, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers.

62. As explained in W. N. Campbell to R. S. Thomas, May 21, 1972, folder: Consent Decree Implementation—Correspondence, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers.

63. Hardbeck, “Impact of the Nevada Consent Decree,” 14.

64. Ibid., 13–14.

65. J. Stanley Pottinger to E. Timothy Applegate, February 6, 1973, folder: Consent Decree Implementation—Correspondence, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers.

66. Hardbeck, “Impact of the Nevada Consent Decree,” 15.

67. “Memorandum of EEOC In Opposition to Motion for Dissolution of Consent Decree,” folder: U.S. v. Nevada Resort Association, et al., Civil Action No. LV 1645, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers.

68. See “Motion to Compel Answers to Plaintiff’s Interrogatories and Response to Defendants’ Motion for Protective Order,” and “Affidavit of Howard Eugene Harkness,” folder: Case No. CV-LV-1645 Black Consent Decree-Pleadings, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers.

69. “Affidavit of Clemmie Jewel Woodard,” folder: Case No. CV-LV-1645 Black Consent Decree-Pleadings, in Black Consent Decree Files, NRA Papers. On the Woodward case, see also John C. Cooney to Jesse D. Scott, May 20, 1975, box 0658, folder 1, Papers of Governor Mike O’Callaghan, NSMA Special Collections.

70. “Memorandum for Nevada Resort Association,” October 4, 1974, folder: EEOC—Possible Commissioners’ Charge of Sex and National Origin Discrimination (1974–75), in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission/Nevada Equal Rights Commission Files, NRA Papers.

71. Records of the EEOC suggest that Hispanics accounted for about 5 percent of the Clark County workforce by the mid-1970s, or roughly three thousand to four thousand people. On charges of discrimination by Hispanics, see “Charges under Investigation by the Nevada Commission on the Equal Rights of Citizens,” n.d., folder: EEOC Department of Labor Investigation, in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission/Nevada Equal Rights Commission Files, NRA Papers.

72. Walter Loomis to William Campbell, October 30, 1974, 4, folder: EEOC—Possible Commissioners Charge of Sex and National Origin Discrimination (1974–75), in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission/Nevada Equal Rights Commission Files, NRA Papers.

73. Moehring, Resort City, 201.

74. The resort had not reached its goals in the categories of dealer, secretary-receptionist, and switchboard operator. See Jennifer Gee to Virginia Pendleton, September 1978, Telles v. Flamingo Hotel, in Telles Charges Files, NRA Papers.

75. Barbara Lindemann Schlei to William Davis, July 21, 1986, folder: Case No. CVLV-81, in Telles Charges Files, NRA Papers. See also “Order Dissolving Consent Decree,” from same folder and file. The Black Consent Decree has never been dissolved. On efforts to enforce the decree in the 1980s, see Nevada Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, “The Impact of Two Consent Decrees,” and Sallaz, “Civil Rights and Employment Equity,” 295–99.

76. Interview with Woodrow Wilson, September 18, 1997, box CR7, folder: Woodrow Wilson, NSHS, Reno.

77. Sun, July 22, 1963.

CHAPTER 7: THE SPIRIT OF ’76

1. Las Vegas Perspective, 1981, 50–53, UNLV Special Collections.

2. The words are those of Paul Titus of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Variety, March 16, 1977. Also, Hollywood Reporter, April 12, 1977; Los Angeles Times, May 18, 1977. On Atlantic City, see David G. Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond (New York: Routledge, 2003), 173–82.

3. Robbins E. Cahill, “Recollections of Work in State Politics, Government, Taxation, Gaming Control, Clark County Administration and the Nevada Resort Association,” 948–49, UNOHP, Reno.

4. Henri Lewin to William H. Edwards, March 27, 29, and 30, 1973, box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), folder: Hilton/N.J. License I, Local 226 Papers.

5. Review-Journal, March 11, 1971. Also, Collective Bargaining Agreement between Nevada Resort Association and Culinary Workers and Bartenders Unions, 1973–1976, in Expired Labor Contracts Files, NRA Papers. See also Agreement between Las Vegas Resort Hotels and Teamsters, 1973–76, in Expired Labor Contracts Files, NRA Papers. The Culinary agreed to a one-year wage freeze followed by a flat-rate raise of only $2.00 a day for employees for each of the next two years.

6. Collective Bargaining Agreement between Nevada Resort Association and Culinary Workers and Bartenders Unions, 1970–73, in Expired Labor Contracts Files, NRA Papers. Also, see the bargaining agreement of 1973–76. From 1970 to 1976, employer contributions to the unions’ health and welfare fund rose from $19 to $36 a month, per employee, and contributions to the retirement fund rose from nothing to a rate of $.25 for each hour an employee worked.

7. According to the federal government, the price of consumer goods and services rose 67 percent between 1967 and 1976. On the rising cost of consumer goods in Las Vegas, see Review-Journal, March 19, 1976.

8. Wall Street Journal, October 17, 1972; Sun, May 4, 1977. See also “The Secret Life of Howard Hughes,” Time, December 13, 1976, 22–24, 32.

9. In 1970, in Boys Markets v. Retail Clerks (398 U.S. 235), the Supreme Court reversed a decision made eight years earlier that said lower courts could not issue injunctions to stop strikes in violation of no-strike agreements because federal laws had not made such strikes illegal. See Arthur A. Sloan and Fred Witney, Labor Relations, 5th ed. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1985), 416–17.

10. The guards belonged to Local 151 of the International Union of Police and Protection Employees. Sun, June 28, 1975; July 13, 1975.

11. “Management Committee Meeting,” March 7, 1976, folder: Management Committee Meetings, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Also, Valley Times, March 24, 1976; Review-Journal, February, 23, March 14, 1976.

12. “Minutes of Collective Bargaining Sessions,” February 26, Minutes of Meetings, Culinary Negotiations, 1976, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers; Review-Journal, March 14, 1976; March 18. Al Bramlet of the Culinary had recently talked of organizing casino personnel in the Reno-Tahoe area. Bramlet told the press that the International had given him “the green light” to expand the scope of organizing efforts.

13. Carson City Appeal, March 18, 1976.

14. San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 1976.

15. The AFL urged members “not to tie themselves up with contracts so that they cannot help each other when able.” On sympathy strikes, see David Montgomery, Workers Control in America: Studies in the History of Work, Technology, and Labor Struggles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 21–27.

16. Review-Journal, March 11, 1976.

17. San Diego Tribune, March 15, 1976.

18. San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 1976.

19. Testimony of John Cullerton before State of New Jersey Casino Control Commission, July 24, 1984, box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), folder: Hilton—Cullerton, Local 226 Papers.

20. “Minutes of Management Committee Meetings,” December 29, 1975, February 9, and March 7, 1976, folder: Management Committee Meetings, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

21. San Francisco Chronicle, March 28, 1976; and Review-Journal, March 2, 6, 10, 12, and 20, 1976. Frank Scott was also a top executive at the Union Plaza.

22. Jack Foy to Governor Mike O’Callaghan, April 20, 1976, box 0696, folder 16, Papers of Governor Mike O’Callaghan, NSMA Special Collections.

23. Interview with Mark Massagli, Riviera Hotel, June 23, 1997; and interview with Dennis Sabbath, Riviera Hotel, June 25, 1997. The Musicians contract expired on February 15.

24. William N. Campbell to Lee C. Shaw, December 17, 1975, folder: Miscellaneous, Musicians Negotiations 1976, in Musicians Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. In same folder and file, see also William N. Campbell to Jack Foy, March 18, 1976.

25. Interview with Mark Massagli, at Riviera Hotel, June 23, 1997.

26. Variety, March 10, 1976. Also, Valley Times, March 9, 1976.

27. James Koteas to Herb Tobman, Bill Champion, Alan Lee, and Pepper Davis, January 10, 1975, folder: Miscellaneous, Musicians Negotiations 1976, in Musicians Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Also, Jack Foy to James Koteas, January 9, 1975, folder: Membership Correspondence, in Musicians Negotiations 1976 Files, in Musicians Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

28. Variety, March 10, 1976. Also, Valley Times, March 9, 1976.

29. Hollywood Reporter, March 13, 1976; Review-Journal, March 6, 8, 10, 1976.

30. W. N. Campbell to Establishments Signatory to Musicians Labor Agreement, March 6, 1976, folder: Membership Correspondence, Musicians Negotiations, 1976, in Musicians Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

31. Review-Journal, March 9, 1976.

32. Hollywood Reporter, March 13, 1976; Review-Journal, March 10, 11, 1976.

33. “Status of Musicians and Stagehands,” March 11, 1976, folder: Miscellaneous, Musicians Negotiations, 1976, in Musicians Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

34. Daily Variety, March 11, 1976.

35. Review-Journal, March 11, 12, 1976; Sun, March 11, 1976.

36. San Francisco Chronicle, March 28, 1976; Review-Journal, March 14, 1976. Also, Daily Variety, March 15, 1976; and North Valley Times, March 12, 1976.

37. William Bennett had been an executive at Del Webb, and William Pennington was a gaming equipment manufacturer. These men reversed the decline of Circus Circus by redesigning its casino to give gamblers more space and fewer distractions, and eliminated risqué entertainment in favor of more family-oriented attractions. As a result of such changes, Circus Circus became one of the most profitable resorts on the Strip. Robert D. McCracken, Las Vegas: The Great American Playground (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997), 92; and A. D. Hopkins, “Jay Sarno: He Came to Play,” in The Players: The Men Who Made Las Vegas, ed. Jack Sheehan (Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1997), 97–98.

38. San Francisco Chronicle, March 13 and 26, 1976.

39. Herald-Examiner, March 15, 1976; Review-Journal, March 13, 1976.

40. Sun, March 12 and 13, 1976.

41. Herald-Examiner, March 15, 1976; Review-Journal, March 13, 1976.

42. San Francisco Chronicle, March 15, 1976.

43. Sacramento Union, March 14, 1976; Atlanta Journal Constitution, March 21, 1976.

44. Valley Times, March 11 and 25, 1976; Hollywood Reporter, March 26, 1976.

45. Sun, March 21 and 22, 1976. Some three hundred people volunteered to work in four-hour shifts at the kitchen. According to the press, the kitchen turned out about ten thousand sandwiches a day, along with fifteen thousand donuts and five hundred gallons of coffee.

46. See Rick Fantasia, Cultures of Solidarity: Consciousness, Action, and Contemporary American Workers (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 192–93.

47. Daily Variety, March 11, 1976; Review-Journal, March 11, 1976.

48. Review-Journal, April 4, 1976.

49. “Affidavit of Kenneth L. Betts,” March 17, 1976, 1–4, folder: Case No. A152518, Civil Docket B, Circus Circus v. Local Joint Executive Board et. al, in Court Cases Files, NRA Papers. See also the affidavits of Donald Richardson, John McElroy, Jules Pursley, and Delfino Alamo in the same folder and files. See, too, Review-Journal, March 17, 1976.

50. “Affidavit of Gretchen T. Gotchy,” March 17, 1976, folder: Case No. A152517, Civil Dock B, Caesars Palace vs. Local Joint Executive Board, et al., in Court Cases Files, NRA Papers.

51. “Affidavit of Larry Mills,” March 17, 1976, folder: Case No. A152517, Caesars Palace vs. Local Joint Executive Board, et al., in Court Cases Files, NRA Papers. Review-Journal, March 23, 1976.

52. Review-Journal, March 11, 12, 13, 1976.

53. “Minutes of Mediation Sessions,” March 18, Culinary Negotiations, 1976, Miscellaneous, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Also, Collective Bargaining Agreement between Nevada Resort Association and Culinary Workers and Bartenders Unions, 1976–1980, article 30, 87–88, in Expired Labor Contracts Files, NRA Papers.

54. Stanley P. Jones to William Campbell, February 26, 1976, folder: Culinary Negotiations, 1976, Miscellaneous, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Also, San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 1976; Valley Times, March 18, 1976.

55. Frank Scott to Mike O’Callaghan, March 18, 1976, box 0696, folder 16, Papers of Mike O’Callaghan NSMA Special Collections. Scott also criticized the union for taking “an inflexible position” on this issue. “We simply cannot believe that the Culinary Workers or any other striking union,” he told the governor, “will continue to sacrifice the welfare of their members and the best interests of our community by slavish adherence to an unrealistic position that is unchanging.”

56. A. D. Hopkins, “Mike O’Callaghan: The Popular Pugilist,” Review-Journal, The First 100 Persons Who Shaped Southern Nevada, at www.1st100.com/part3/ocallaghan.html.

57. “Minutes of Mediation Sessions,” March 19, 20, 21, 1976, folder: Culinary Negotiations, 1976, Miscellaneous, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

58. Ibid., March 21. On Benninger’s concerns about the right to strike, see also Fred Benninger to Mike O’Callaghan, April 13, 1976, box 0696, folder 16, Papers of Governor Mike O’Callaghan.

59. “Minutes of Mediation Sessions,” March 21, 22.

60. Daily Variety, March 22, 1976.

61. Reno State Journal, March 21, 1976. Howard Hughes died on April 5, 1976, only two weeks after the Silver Slipper reopened. On Lieber, see also, Mike O’Callaghan to Perry Lieber, April 1, 1976, box 0696, folder 16, Papers of Governor Mike O’Callaghan.

62. “Temporary Restraining Order,” folder: Case No. A152517, Civil Docket B, Caesars Palace vs. Local Joint Executive Board, et al., in Court Cases Files, NRA Papers.

63. Sun, March 21 and 22, 1976.

64. Los Angeles Times, March 24, 1976; Review-Journal, March 23, 1976; Sun, March 23, 1976.

65. Review-Journal, March 23 and 24, 1976; Sun, March 24 and 25, 1976; Valley Times, March 24 and 25, 1976.

66. Sun, March 21, 1976.

67. Valley Times, March 23 and 25, 1976.

68. Review-Journal, March 25, 1976.

69. Review-Journal, March 24, 1976. Once the strike ended, the Review-Journal expected to see “widespread promotional efforts to herald the end of the strike.”

70. Ed Hanley died in a car accident in January 2000. See Business Week, May 18, 1998, 6; New York Times, January 16, 2000.

71. “Minutes of Mediation Sessions,” March 22, 1976, folder: Culinary Negotiations, 1976, Miscellaneous, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. NRA president Frank Scott as well as Alvin Benedict and Fred Benninger attended the meeting, as did the state labor commissioner.

72. Testimony of Henri Lewin before State of New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Division of Gaming Enforcement, September 17, 1984, 138, box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), folder: Hilton—Lewin, Local 226 Papers.

73. Senate Report, 98th Cong., 69. Local journalists interpreted Hanley’s presence in Las Vegas as an effort to enhance his own reputation at Bramlet’s expense. They suggested he had national political aspirations and saw the strike as a chance to cast himself as a powerful yet moderate voice within the labor movement. See John Whitmarsh, “Las Vegas, Los Angeles, McDonald’s, Marriott—Where will the union strike next?” box 0696, folder 15, Papers of Governor Mike O’Callaghan. Also, Reno Gazette-Journal, July 22, 1985.

74. Testimony of Henri Lewin before State of New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Division of Gaming Enforcement, September 17, 1984, 138, box: Hilton—N.J. Licensing Files (1984), folder: Hilton—Lewin, Local 226 Papers. On relations between local and national unions, see Fantasia, Cultures of Solidarity, 223–25; and Sloan and Witney, Labor Relations, 129, 157–58.

75. “Minutes of Mediation Sessions,” March 22, 1976, folder: Culinary Negotiations, 1976, Miscellaneous, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Hanley rejected a management proposal for a thirty-to forty-five-day cooling-off period as unreasonable.

76. On the governor’s position, see “Minutes of Mediation Sessions,” March 22, 1976, folder: Culinary Negotiations, 1976, Miscellaneous, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Also, “Minutes of Mediation Sessions,” March 18, 1976, Culinary Negotiations, 1976, Miscellaneous, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations, NRA Papers.

77. O’Callaghan was not only a popular governor but a former boxer and a decorated Korean War veteran. On the governor’s role in the dispute, see editorial by Stanley P. Jones, in Southern Nevada Labor News, April 1976, 2, box 0696, folder 15, Papers of Mike O’Callaghan. This editorial is attached to a letter from Jones to Callaghan, April 28, 1976, in same box and folder.

78. San Francisco Chronicle, March 28, 1976. Also, Review-Journal, April 9, 1976. The settlement translated into hourly wage increases of $1.55 over four years; the unions had demanded $1.35 over three years.

79. “Brief on Behalf of Showboat Hotel,” March 29, 1982, 7, 33, from “The Matter of Arbitration between Showboat Hotel and the Las Vegas Joint Executive Board,” folder: Culinary & Showboat Hotel: Violation of No-Strike Clause, Rentfo, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers. Hanley met with Bramlet and Bowe the morning after his meeting with the Governor, at the Riviera Hotel. Review-Journal, March 24 and 28, 1976. Also, W. N. Campbell to Phil Arce, June 9, 1976, No Strike, No Lockout Provision Letter, in Miscellaneous Labor Files, NRA Papers.

80. Sun, March 27, 29, 31, 1976. Local 720 of the Stagehands was the last union to settle. Its leaders struggled unsuccessfully to reduce the workweek from six to five days. Several showrooms remained closed until stagehands ratified their contract in early April. See Valley Times, April 2, 1976.

81. The “lounge case” dragged on until 1979. Interview with Mark Massagli, June 21, 1997; and interview with Dennis Sabbath, June 23, 1997. See also Review-Journal, January 9, 1979.

82. “Minutes of Collective Bargaining Sessions,” February 2, 4, and March 25, 1976, folder: Minutes of Meetings, Musicians Negotiations, 1976, in Musicians Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

83. The Culinary and Bartenders negotiated new agreements with the downtown properties, who bargained through their own association, during the last week of March. The agreements resembled NRA contracts except that they offered waitresses a $.55 an hour higher wage because tips in the downtown area were lower. Valley Times, March 31, 1976; Sun, March 26, 1976; and Review-Journal, April 8, 1976. See also W. N. Campbell to Phil Arce, June 9, 1976, No Strike, No Lockout Provision Letter.

84. Review-Journal, March 27, 28, 1976.

85. Review-Journal, April 4, 1976. Sun, March 26, 29, 1976. See also “Backgrounder,” 16, April 4, 1984, folder: Publicity File, 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

86. Daily Variety, June 4, 1976. Clark County’s gaming revenue increased 10 percent for the first quarter of 1976.

87. Senate Report, 98th Cong., 69.

CHAPTER 8: MANAGEMENT DIGS IN, 1982–1984

1. Las Vegas Perspective, 1981, 3–26, UNLV Special Collections. The Perspective is a collection of facts and statistics compiled by the Nevada Development Authority, the First Interstate Bank of Nevada, the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and published with the help of the Review-Journal. See also Hal Rothman, “Colony, Capital, and Casino: Money in the Real Las Vegas,” in The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales of the Real Las Vegas, ed. Hal K. Rothman and Mike Davis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 327.

2. Ramada Inns, Incorporated, 1979 Annual Report (Phoenix: Ramada Inns, Incorporated, 1979), 12, Tropicana Promotional and Publicity files, UNLV Special Collections; Las Vegas Perspective, 1981, 42–45. Other properties that opened off the Strip include Alexis Park, the Bingo Palace (now Palace Station), the Maxim, and Vegas World.

3. Nevada Resort Association, “The Gaming Industry: Will It Remain a Positive Force in the Nevada Economy?” January 1983, 3–4, folder: Gambling—United States: Nevada: Economic, in Vertical Files, UNLV Special Collections. Nearly half of all gaming establishments in the state had suffered net operating losses the previous year, and about two dozen of those places went out of business in 1982, along with more than five hundred firms in other areas of the state’s economy.

4. The first quotation is from a consultant at the company of Drexel, Burnham, and Lambert, the second from an analyst at Merrill Lynch. For similar statements, see “Study of Financial Results and Reporting Trends in the Gaming Industry,” 1982, 6–9, folder: Gambling Management, in Vertical Files, UNLV Special Collections. The accounting firm of Laventhol and Horwath conducted this study, which focused on the health of fifteen corporations involved in the gaming business, and included financial reports and statements to stockholders.

5. Ibid., 7. The words are those of Joseph Amoroso, president of the Elsinore Corporation.

6. For a good overview of the national economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, see Michael French, US Economic History since 1945 (New York: Manchester University Press, 1997), 42–53.

7. On the decline of trade unionism, see Michael Goldfield, The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987). See too, Melvyn Dubofsky and Foster Rhea Dulles, Labor in America: A History, 7th ed. (Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 2004), 393–96. On the erosion of union membership in the building trades, see “Construction Workers Try to Shore Up a Crumbling Foundation,” Business Week, February 4, 1985, 52–53, reprinted in Eileen Boris and Nelson Lichtenstein, Major Problems in the History of American Workers (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1991), 590–92.

8. On the autopsy of Bramlet’s body, see Report Made by Las Vegas Reporting Office, March 30, 1977, part IX, 108, in FBI Records on Elmer Alton Bramlet.

9. Documentary by George Knapp, at KLAS Television Station, Las Vegas. Knapp provided a transcript of the documentary, which is in my possession. See also Valley Times, April 22, 1977; and New York Times, May 5, 1984. Authorities interviewed Clem Vaughn repeatedly, using both polygraph tests and sodium pentothal; see SAC to Director, FBI, April 4, 1977, FBI Records on Elmer Alton Bramlet. On Vaughn’s account of the crime, see Review-Journal, August 30, 1977. For an overview of the murder, see Michael Andrew Nyre, “Union Jackpot: Culinary Workers Local 226, Las Vegas Nevada, 1970–2000,” (master’s thesis, California State University, Fullerton, 2001), 45–48.

10. On the vandalism of restaurants, see SAC Las Vegas to Director, FBI, April 4, 1977, FBI Records on Elmer Alton Bramlet. On Gramby Hanley’s version of the crime, see Sun, September 29, 1982.

11. Tom Hanley also admitted being drunk when he shot Bramlet. Review-Journal, November 2, 1979; New York Times, May 5, 1984; Senate Report, 98th Cong., 69–70. For more on motives, see Carson City Appeal, November 2, 1979; Review-Journal, March 22, 1977; November 9 and 24, 1979; and October 10, 1982; and Sun, March 24, 1977; November 2 and 24, 1979; September 29 and 30, 1982; and October 1, 1982.

12. Report Made by Las Vegas Reporting Office, March 30, 1977, part III, FBI Records on Elmer Al Bramlet. Also, San Francisco Examiner, March 6, 1977. U.S. senators probing allegations of union racketeering in western states suggested that the International had waged a ruthless campaign to consolidate the health and welfare funds of its affiliates, which was never proved. On the probe, see Senate Report, 98th Cong., 69–71; Review-Journal, September 29, 1982; Sun, September 28 and 30, 1982. On reactions of HERE to the probe, see Review-Journal, November 3, 1982.

13. The quotation is from the Wall Street Journal, March 9, 1977. On speculation that Reno employers orchestrated Bramlet’s murder, see Report Made by Las Vegas Reporting Office, March 30, 1977, part IV, 38, FBI Records on Elmer Al Bramlet. Also, interview with Jeff McColl, May 8, 2008; Review-Journal, June 4, 1974; January 3, 1975; and Sun, August 22, 1974. Also, Review-Journal, November 3, 1982.

14. On Spilotro, see FBI files at www.fbi.org. See also, Senate Report, 98th Cong., 70–71; Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge, 2002), 75–76; John L. Smith, Sharks in the Desert: The Founding Fathers and Current Kings of Las Vegas (Fort Lee, N.J.: Barricade Books, 2005), 39–47; and Steve Fisher, When the Mob Ran Las Vegas: Stories of Money, Mayhem, and Murder (Omaha, Neb.: Berkline Press, 2006), 202–7, 218–24.

15. Wendy Hanley, who was forty years younger than Tom, said Tom was abusive as well as dangerous. “He threatened my life a couple of times,” she told the journalist. See Documentary by George Knapp, at KLAS Television, Las Vegas. Also, Nevada State Journal, June 10, 1977; Review-Journal, May 11, 1977; and interview with unidentified individual, April 29, 1977, FBI Records on Elmer Alton Bramlet.

16. “An Interview with Essie Shelton Jacobs: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 31–32, 46, UNLV Special Collections. On workers’ attitudes toward Bramlet, see also “An Interview with Alma Whitney: An Oral History Conducted by Claytee D. White,” Las Vegas Women in Gaming and Entertainment Oral History Project, 1997, 24.

17. “Interview with Essie Shelton Jacobs,” 50.

18. Senate Report, 98th Cong., 70–71. Schmoutey had served as president of Local 226 for a decade before Bramlet’s murder. Also, Review-Journal, March 22, 1987.

19. Robert Lanyon to Governor Richard Bryan, April 2, 1984, box 0696, file 008, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan, NSMA Special Collections. Also, Interview with Dick Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998; Review-Journal, November 25, 1979; and Nyre, “Union Jackpot,” 48–55.

20. As quoted in Nyre, “Union Jackpot,” 56. Also, Review-Journal, April 4, 1980.

21. Interview with Dick Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998. Also, “Press Release,” folder: Publicity File, in Culinary Bartender Negotiation Files, NRA Papers. In same folder and file, see also “Las Vegas Joint Board Press Release.” In the late 1970s, several restaurants in the area had vowed to turn their establishments into nonunion properties, including seven Denny’s and two Bob’s Big Boy restaurants. Sun, March 24, 1977.

22. The new picket line clause prohibited workers from honoring picket lines of groups who were not “currently party to a collective bargaining agreement with the NRA,” which the union had construed to mean unorganized groups. See “Press Release,” folder: Publicity File, in Culinary Bartender Negotiation Files, NRA Papers; and Valley Times, April 4, 18, 27, and 30, 1980.

23. An Appeal from the U.S. District Court District of Nevada, No. 87-2789, April 13, 1988, folder: Case CV-LV-81-555, Management Trustees/Culinary, in Court Cases Files, NRA Papers. Also, F. T. MacDonald to Tim Hay, February 13, 1984, box 1173, folder: 1984 Strike, Labor Commissioner Updates, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan.

24. Interview with Jeff McColl, Las Vegas, June 23, 1998.

25. Review-Journal, November 11, 1982; interview with Mark Massagli, June 12, 1998, Las Vegas.

26. Nevada Resort Association, “The Gaming Industry,” UNLV Special Collections.

27. Ibid., 5.

28. “Study of Financial Results and Reporting Trends in the Gaming Industry,” 1982, 9, folder: Gambling Management, in Vertical Files, UNLV Special Collections.

29. Sun, June 29, July 12, 1981; Review-Journal, July 12, 1981. Helm had also been field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board.

30. Interview with Kevin Efroymson, Las Vegas, June 16, 1998.

31. Labor Arbitration Reports: Awards of Arbitrators; Reports of Fact Finding Boards, vol. 79 (Washington D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs, 1983), 478–83. Also Valley Times, April 4, 1980; and April 6, 1984. Interview with Greg Smith, Las Vegas, April 14, 1998.

32. Interview with Dennis Kist, Las Vegas, September 8, 2003.

33. Interview with Kevin Efroymson, Las Vegas, June 16, 1998; interview with Dick Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998.

34. “Minutes, Contract Negotiations Committee,” folder: Miscellaneous (1983), in Teamsters Backend Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

35. Interview with Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998. Also, “Minutes, Contract Negotiations Committee,” folder: Miscellaneous, in Teamsters Backend Negotiations Files,” NRA Papers.

36. Valley Times, May 1, 1983.

37. Interview with Dick Thomas, June 15, 1998.

38. Sun, May 11, 1983.

39. The Supreme Court case involved eleven striking workers at a San Francisco company engaged in the transmission of foreign and interstate communications. See NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph, 1938. On the effectiveness of permanent replacements in the 1980s, see Jonathan D. Rosenblum, Copper Crucible: How the Arizona Miners’ Strike of 1983 Recast Labor-Management Relations in America (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1995); and Stephen Franklin, Three Strikes: Labor’s Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans (New York: The Guilford Press, 2001).

40. Julius Getman, The Betrayal of Local 14: Paperworkers, Politics, and Permanent Replacements (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1998); Timothy J. Minchin, “Permanent Replacements and the Breakdown of the ‘Social Accord’ in Calera, Alabama, 1974–2000,” Labor History 42 (November 2001): 371–96; Daniel J. B. Mitchell, “A Decade of Concession Bargaining,” in Labor Economics and Industrial Relations: Markets and Institutions, ed. Clark Kerr and Paul D. Staudohar (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994), 435–74.

41. See Labor Commissioner Notes, 1983 Strike, box 0952, folder: Labor, Papers of Governor Robert List, NSMA Special Collections.

42. Claude Evans to Mr. Murray Seeger, May 23, 1983, box: Misc. 5-A, Correspondence and Accounting Records, file: Labor March 5/9/83, Federation Papers, NSHS. Also, Valley Times, May 10, 1983.

43. Review-Journal, May 17, 1983.

44. Nevada State Journal, May 16, 1983.

45. Labor Commissioner Notes, 1983 Strike.

46. Vincent Helm to Jeff McColl and Jack Stafford, March 7, 1983, in folder: Correspondence to/from Unions (1983), in Teamsters Backend Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

47. Vincent Helm to Jeff McColl, March 23, 1983, folder: Correspondence to/from Unions (1983), in Teamsters Backend Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. In same folder and file, see also Vincent Helm to Mark Tully Massagli, March 29, 1983.

48. Labor Commissioner Notes, 1983 Strike.

49. Ibid.

50. Interview with Dick Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998; Valley Times, May 13, 1983.

51. Review-Journal, May 18, 1983.

52. Valley Times, June 2, 1983. Union members voted for the contracts on June 1, in shifts at the Riviera.

53. “Study of Financial Results and Reporting Trends in the Gaming Industry, 1984,” 20, brochure, folder: Gambling Management, in Vertical Files, UNLV Library Special Collections. This study by the accounting firm of Laventhol and Horwath examined seventeen corporations in the gaming industry. The words are those of Mark Manson of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette accounting firm.

54. Barron Hilton to Stockholders, February 29, 1984, in Hilton Hotels Corporation 1983 Annual Report, 2–4, brochure, folder: Gambling Management, in Vertical Files, UNLV Library Special Collections.

55. Study of Financial Results and Reporting Trends in the Gaming Industry, 10, 20. The words are again those of Mark Manson.

56. Ibid., 19–21.

57. On gaming in Atlantic City, see George Sternlieb and James W. Hughes, The Atlantic City Gamble (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983). Also, David G. Schwartz, Suburban Xanadu: The Casino Resort on the Las Vegas Strip and Beyond (New York: Routledge Press, 2003), 175–82.

58. See Tom Pilkington to Vincent Helm, January 13, 1984, Correspondence to Employees, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations, NRA Papers. See also “Report #4 on Negotiations,” n.d., folder: Correspondence to Employees by Union, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers; and Joseph Buckley to William Campbell, January 30, 1980, folder: Membership Correspondence, in Culinary Bartender Negotiations Files (1980), NRA Papers. Sun, May 4; May 17, 1984.

59. “Minutes of Negotiating Sessions,” February 22, 1984, 4, folder: Culinary Negotiations, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. See also, Rothman, Neon Metropolis, 77.

60. New York Times, May 5, 1984.

61. See F. T. MacDonald to Tim Hay, February 13, 1984, box 1173, folder: 1984 Strike, Labor Commissioner Updates, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan.

62. Interview with Jeff McColl, June 23, 1998, Las Vegas. See also union letters to Willie Nelson and Frank Sinatra, n.d., box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS. “Study of Financial Results and Reporting Trends in the Gaming Industry, 1984,” 11–13.

63. See F. T. MacDonald to Tim Hay, February 13, 1984. See also, “Minutes of Negotiating Sessions,” January 16–20, folder: Culinary Negotiations, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. Also, Nation’s Restaurant News, February 13, 1984; and Sun, March 9, 1984.

64. Interview with Philip Paul Bowe, San Francisco, December 19, 2004.

65. “Culinary and Bartenders Negotiations,” February 22, 1984, folder: NLRB Case 31-CA-13935, Culinary v. NRA, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers.

66. Ibid.

67. “Report #4 on Negotiations,” n.d., folder: Correspondence to Employees by Union, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

68. “To Hilton Hotel Guests,” (n.d.), folder: LV-84-129-RDF, Nevada Resort Association v. Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, in Settled Grievances—All Unions Files, NRA Papers. In same folder and file, see Vincent M. Helm to Jeff McColl, February 28, and “To All Las Vegas Convention Organizers.”

69. F. T. MacDonald to Tim Hay, February 13, 1984, box 1173, file: 1984 Strike, Labor Commissioner Updates, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan. Also, Valley Times, April 9, 1984.

70. “Minutes of Negotiating Sessions,” March 16, 1984, folder: Culinary Negotiations, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

71. Review-Journal, April 1, 1984; Valley Times, April 1, 1984; Sun, March 29, 1984; and April 1, 1984. The other “Indies” included the Dunes, El Rancho, Barbary Coast, Riviera, Slots a Fun, and Silver City on the Strip; the Fremont, Sundance, and Hotel Nevada downtown; and the Silver Nugget and Jerry’s Nugget in North Las Vegas. Wage hikes varied according to job classifications; nontipped employees were to receive bigger hikes than tipped employees.

72. Sun, March 29, 1984. “We are prepared to go as long as we can,” John Chiero of the Tropicana told the press.

73. Vincent Helm to All Member Hotels, March 29, 1984, folder: Correspondence to/from Members, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. In same folder and file, see “Vegas 1984 Strike Prep Data,” and “Strike Preparation Checklist.”

74. On the strike funds, see Claude Evans to Thomas Donahue, May 8, 1984, and Evans to Herman Leavitt, August 7, 1984, box: Executive Board Minutes [1944–85], folder: Executive Board Meeting, August 16, 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS. The AFL-CIO set up a strike fund with an initial contribution of $20,000. See “Statement Adopted by the National AFL-CIO Executive Council,” May 7, 1984, box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS.

75. “Report #5 on Negotiations,” n.d., folder: Correspondence to Employees by Union, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

76. “They’re Still on the Line in Las Vegas,” Catering Industry Employee, June 1984, 14.

77. Sun, March 29, 1984. The kitchen would make twelve hundred loaves of bread daily (including ham and cheese, bologna, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches).

78. F. T. MacDonald to Tim Hay, February 13, 1984, box 1173, folder: 1984 Strike, Labor Commissioner Updates, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan. Also, Review-Journal, April 2, 1984; Sun, April 3, 1984.

79. On the new “managerialism,” see Robert R. Locke, The Collapse of the American Management Mystique (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). Also Howell John Harris, The Right to Manage: Industrial Relations Policies of American Business in the 1940s (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982).

CHAPTER 9: THE STRIKE OF 1984–1985

1. Review-Journal, April 2, 1984. The nonunion properties included the Imperial Palace and Palace Station.

2. In the 1970s, membership in trade unions dropped from about 23 percent of the labor force to 19 percent. On general problems of American workers since the 1970s, see Michael Goldfield, The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987); and Kim Moody, An Injury to All: The Decline of American Unionism (New York: Verso, 1988).

3. Sun, June 14, 1984.

4. Valley Times, April 4, 1984; Sun, April 4, 1984. Also, Michael Andrew Nyre, “Union Jackpot: Culinary Workers Local 226, Las Vegas Nevada, 1970–2000” (master’s thesis, California State University, Fullerton), 67–68. The Stagehands and Musicians struck first. On April 2, at 12:01 a.m., members of the unions walked off their jobs at the two Hilton properties and the Desert Inn. Culinary workers and bartenders joined the strike at 6:00 a.m., at the start of the morning shift.

5. See “Affidavits of Vito Lombardo, Frank Blankenship, Don M. Creed, and Curt Thompson,” folder: Case No. A228901, Hilton Hotels, et al. v. Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, in Court Cases Files—State, NRA Papers. The police eventually apprehended the picketer and charged him with felony assault.

6. Review-Journal, April 3, 1984.

7. See “Affidavits of Kerry Dale Winemiller, and David Charles Bauer,” Case No. A228901, Hilton Hotels, et al. v. Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, in Court Cases Files—State, NRA Papers.

8. Valley Times, April 4, 1984. On charges against strikers, see “Billing Statement No. 1,” folder: CV-LV-84-293-HEC, Hansen, et al v. Moran (1984 Strike-Related Arrests), in box 5 of 9, Local 226 Papers. Also, Claude “Blackie” Evans to Lane Kirkland, April 5, 1984, box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike, Federation Papers, NSHS.

9. Nevada State Journal, April 7, 1984; Sun, April 4, 1984. Also, interview with McColl, Las Vegas, June 23, 1998. The police made several arrests at other properties too. At Caesars Palace, for example, they arrested drivers of catering trucks who had abandoned their vehicles in front of the property, blocking the entrances to it.

10. Review-Journal, April 4, 1984; Sun April 5, 1984.

11. Lane Kirkland to Wm. French Smith, April 5, 1984, box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS.

12. Lane Kirkland to William Edwards and Barron Hilton, April 5, 1984, box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS. In same folder, see “Statement Adopted by the National AFL-CIO Executive Council,” May 7, 1984.

13. “Temporary Restraining Order,” April 5, 1984, Case No. A228901, Hilton Hotels Corporation, et al. v. Hotel and Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union, in Court Cases Files—State, NRA Papers.

14. On labor’s view of the restraining order, see Kenneth C. Cory to Jeff McColl, November 5, 1986, folder: CV-LV-84-293-HEC, Hansen, et al. v. Moran, in box 5 of 9, Local 226 Papers. On labor’s view of the role of police in strikes and of court injunctions against mass picketing, see Rick Fantasia, Cultures of Solidarity: Consciousness, Action, and Contemporary American Workers (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 198.

15. Valley Times, April 5, 1984. Metropolitan Police Lieutenant Jim Chaney suggested the man intended to use the light bulbs as explosives.

16. “What Is a Scab?” box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS.

17. Nyre, “Union Jackpot,” 69–70; Sun, April 13, 1984; Valley Times, April 13, 1984.

18. Nyre, “Union Jackpot,” 69; Sun, April 16, 1984; Valley Times, April 15, 1984.

19. Sun, April 17, 1984.

20. Valley Times, April 6, 1984.

21. On live entertainment during the strike, see Valley Times, April 5, 1984.

22. Valley Times, April 19, 1984.

23. KVBC TV-3 Editorial, delivered by James E. Rogers, April 16, 1984, box 1003, folder 7, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan, NSMA Special Collections. See also Valley Times, April 9, 1984; Sun April 11, 14, and 19, 1984. On April 10, the NRA offered to hike wages if unions accepted all other proposals. Also, “Employers’ Proposal—April 13, 1984,” box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS.

24. Interview with Jeff McColl, June 23, 1998. The meeting was held at the home of Dr. Elias Gonnam, a local physician and friend of Barron Hilton (and also Elvis Presley’s personal physician in Las Vegas).

25. Interview with Kevin Efroymson, Las Vegas, June 16, 1998.

26. Ibid.

27. Interview with Jeff McColl, June 23, 1998. Also, “Affidavit of Jeff D. McColl,” Case No. CV-LV-84-439-HC, Las Vegas Club vs. Local Joint Executive Board, in Court Cases—Federal, NRA Papers. Also, Valley Times, April 19, 1984. See also “Union’s Post Hearing Brief,” Case No. CV-LV-85-262-HDM, folder: Riverboat Casino vs. Local 226, 8–9, in box 5 of 9, Local 226 Papers.

28. Business Week, May 7, 1984, 33. Also, Nevada State Journal, May 4, 1984; and Sun, July 1, 1984.

29. “Study of Financial Results and Reporting Trends in the Gaming Industry, 1984,” 6, 10, brochure, folder: Gambling Management, in Vertical Files, UNLV Library. Also, Barron Hilton to Stockholders, February 29, 1984, in Hilton Hotels Corporation 1983 Annual Report, 2–4, brochure, folder: Gambling Management, in Vertical Files, UNLV Library.

30. “Opinion and Award,” February 1, 1985, Castaways Hotel/Casino and Local 226 and 165, in Arbitration Files, NRA Papers. See also, Sun, April 19, 20, 1984.

31. “Hilton Talks Suspended,” April 23, folder: Publicity File, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

32. Notes of Frank MacDonald, June 6, 1984, box 1173, folder: Culinary Workers Strike, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan. Also, Sun, May 2, 1984. “One person can operate the synthesizer which can replace 10 musicians,” the union’s president explained. “Two [synthesizers] could replace a twenty-piece orchestra, one simulates the rhythm instruments and the other simulating the remaining instruments. Hell, if they do that,” he said, “every musician in this town will be out of a job.”

33. Review-Journal, April 27, 1984. The police reportedly arrested eighty-four people at the Convention Center.

34. Sun, May 12, 1984; Nyre, “Union Jackpot,” 72–73.

35. Sun, April 30, 1984; Review-Journal, April 30, 1984.

36. Sun, April 30, 1984.

37. Sun, April 11, 1984; and May 9, 1984. Also, interview with Dennis Kist, September 8, 2003.

38. Yvonne Rainey to Ms. Hood, April 27, 1984, folder: Miscellaneous Correspondence, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers. See also John Sertich to 4 Queens,” n.d., in same folder and file.

39. William S. Boyd to All Striking California Hotel and Casino Culinary and Bartender Employees, April 5, 1984, box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike, 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS.

40. Sun, April 24, 1984, and May 1, 1984.

41. Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1984; Sun, April 24, 1984; and Valley Times, May 7, 1984. See also “Answer to Complaint for Confirmation of Arbitration Award,” folder: Case No. CV-LV-85-262-HDM, Local Joint Executive Board v. Holiday MGM & Showboat, in Court Cases Files—Federal, NRA Papers; and Fred Suwe to Jeanne Hood, June 25, 1984, folder: Miscellaneous Correspondence, in 1984 Culinary/Bartender Negotiations Files, NRA Papers.

42. Sun, May 8, 11, 1984.

43. Sun, April 24, 1984.

44. Valley Times, April 16, 1984.

45. Interview with Jeff McColl, June 23, 1998. Also, New York Times, May 5, 1984; and the Nevada State Journal, May 4, 1984; Sun, May 10, 12, 1984. The Hilton pay raises added up to $1.46 an hour over four years. The first year raise was only a $.05 an hour boost. Leaders of the International flew to Las Vegas to seal the deal.

46. Sun, May 4, 1984; Nyre, “Union Jackpot,” 74.

47. Sun, May 17, 1984.

48. Interview with Sam Savalli, March 7, 2005, and August 18, 2005, Las Vegas, Nevada. At the time of the interview, Savalli was a business agent for Local 226.

49. See “Affidavit of Jeff D. McColl,” folder: Case No. CV-LV-84-439-HC. Also, “Union’s Post Hearing Brief,” folder: Case No. CV-LV-85-262-HDM, Riverboat Casino vs. Local 226, 8, in box 5 of 9, Local 226 Papers.

50. Sun, May 4, 1984. Also, Sun, May 17, 1984. “If the union would underwrite my losses,” Exber told the press, “I’d consider the Hilton contract. As it is, I can’t compete with the big hotels.”

51. Timothy Hay to Richard Bryan, May 3, 1984, box 1173, folder: Culinary Workers Strike, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan. The Engineers also sanctioned a strike against Caesars Palace, which was in the process of settling with the striking unions.

52. Review-Journal, May 4, 1984.

53. Nevada State Journal, May 3, 1984; Review-Journal, May 2, 1984; Sun, May 4, 1984.

54. Timothy Hay to Frank MacDonald, May 3, 1984, box 1173, folder: Culinary Workers Strike, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan. Also, interview with Dick Thomas, Las Vegas, June 15, 1998. After the Operating Engineers urged its members not to cross picket lines, Summa attorneys sued the union for not revealing whether its parent organization had sanctioned such action, as required by terms of its labor contract. Several operating engineers lost their job as a result of their walkout. See “Complaint for Damages,” May 22, 1984, folder: Summa Corporation v. Operating Engineers, Local 501, Case No. 84-3892, in Court Cases Files, NRA Papers.

55. Robert J. Kenneth to All Temporary Employees, May 4, 1984, box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS. Also Sun, May 8, 1984; Valley Times, May 7, 1984.

56. Sun, May 9, 11, 13, 1984. The arrests at the MGM followed a demonstration to protest ongoing performances by comedian Rich Little, the first major entertainer to cross union picket lines.

57. McColl took about three-fourths of the seventy-three hundred votes cast in the election. Joe Hays and Rudi Bath, his key assistants, defeated their opponents by an equally wide margin. On the election, see Sun May 17, 1984; and Valley Times, May 16, 1984. On the MGM Agreement, Sun, May 21, 1984; and Valley Times, May 17, 1984. Also, “Opinion and Award,” February 1, 1985, 43, folder: Case No. CV-LV-85-262-HDM, Local Joint Executive Board v. Holiday MGM & Showboat, in Court Cases Files, NRA Papers.

58. “Affidavit of Jeff D. McColl,” Case No. CV-LV-84-439-HC. See “First Amended Complaint for Confirmation of Arbitration Award,” February 1, 1985, 40–41, Las Vegas Club vs. Local Joint Executive Board, in Court Cases Files, NRA Papers. Also, Sun, May 23, 1984.

59. F. T. MacDonald to Tim Hay, March 19, 1984, box 1173, folder: Labor Commissioner Updates, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan.

60. Interview with Jeff McColl, June 23, 1998.

61. Ibid.

62. Review-Journal, June 13, 1984; Nyre, “Union Jackpot,” 80.

63. See Valley Times, May 25, 28, 30, 1984; June 4, 12, 1984. Also, Nyre, “Union Jackpot,” 77.

64. Employers agreed that full-time musicians and stagehands would work a minimum of twelve shows a week. Valley Times, June 3, 1984; Sun, May 8, 22, and 31, 1984. See also Sun June 16, 1984. Also, interview with Dennis Kist, September 8, 2003; and interview with Thom Pastor, September 5, 2003.

65. Review-Journal, June 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1984.

66. Sun, June 24, 26, 1984. The Four Queens was part of the Elsinore Corporation, which also owned a resort in Atlantic City. The Holiday Inns included the Holiday Inn South on the Strip and the downtown Holiday Inn International. The Marina had recently filed for bankruptcy.

67. Sun, June 17, 18, 25, 1984; Review-Journal, June 6, 1984.

68. Vincent J. Sirabella to Hyatt & Holiday Inns, n.d., box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS. In same folder, see also “Release at Will,” May 24, 1984. The Elsinore Corporation owned the Four Queens.

69. “Release at Will,” publicity release by Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union, May 24, 1984, box 0956, folder 7, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan.

70. Review-Journal, June 9, 1984.

71. Review-Journal, June 2, 1984.

72. “Release at Will,” publicity release by Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union, May 24.

73. F. T. MacDonald to Richard H. Bryan, June 22, 1984, box 0986, folder 7, Papers of Governor Richard Bryan. Also, Nyre, “Union Jackpot, 81–82. By 1984, union-busting was big business. Consulting firms helped employers in roughly two-thirds of all NLRB supervised elections that year, providing employers with detailed ways of influencing the vote.

74. Kevin Efroymson to Gregory Smith, December 10, 1984, folder 31-RD-894, Sam’s Town, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers. Also, Goldfield, The Decline of Organized Labor, 193–95. Union attorneys used their own tactics to thwart management initiatives, such as filing frivolous charges against resorts to block the processing of decertification petitions.

75. Jeff McColl to Sam’s Town Employees, n.d., folder 31-RD-894, Sam’s Town, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers.

76. Vincent J. Sirabella to All State Central Bodies, July 13, 1984, box: Strike 1984, folder: Culinary Strike 1984, Federation Papers, NSHS. Also, William S. Boyd to Terry Adrian, September 28, 1984, folder: 31-RD-894, Sam’s Town, in NLRB Files, NRA Papers. In same folder and files, see Gregory Smith to Roger Goubeaux, October 24, 1984.

77. The sixth property that closed was the downtown Holiday Inn. Sun, July 26, 1984. On the decertification process, see Arthur A. Sloane and Fred Witney, Labor Relations, 5th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1985), 107. Also, “Opinion,” United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, folder: CV-LV-85-262-HDM, in box 5 of 9, Local 226 Papers.

78. Interview with Jeff McColl, June 23, 1998.

79. Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge, 2002), 77–78.

80. Sun, July 16, 1984; and July 27, 1984. Resorts lost approximately $40 million at gaming tables during the strike. According to industry analysts, the gaming revenues paid to Clark County declined by 5 percent in the second quarter of 1984 instead of increasing an expected 7 percent.

81. Workers lost perhaps $35 million in wages and tips during the 1984 strike, which took most of them years to make up. Sun, June 14, 1984; Nevada Appeal, May 24, 1984.

AFTERWORD

1. Sun, June 28, 1984.

2. Interview with Jeff McColl, June 23, 1998, Las Vegas; Sun, May 13, 1984.

3. Interview with Mark Massagli, June 12, 1998, Las Vegas.

4. Las Vegas Perspective, 1991, 20–25, UNLV Special Collections. In 1985 the median house hold income in Las Vegas was still higher than the national average, and nearly two-thirds of the population owned their own homes.

5. Las Vegas Perspective, 1981, 50–53, UNLV Special Collections.

6. Las Vegas Perspective, 1985, 3, UNLV Special Collections. About six thousand people a month poured into the area in the early 1990s, at roughly six times the national growth rate. See New York Times, September 17, 1990. Also, Honolulu Advertiser, July 20, 1998; and March 31, 2007.

7. New York Times, April 28, 1991. On the Las Vegas area in these years, see Eugene Moehring, “Growth, Services, and the Political Economy of Gambling in Las Vegas, 1970–2000,” in The Grit Beneath the Glitter: Tales from the Real Las Vegas, ed. Hal K. Rothman and Mike Davis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 73–98.

8. In the early 1990s, less than 15 percent of the local population had more than a high school education; see Las Vegas Perspective, 1991, 24; and Las Vegas Perspective, 1993, 24, UNLV Special Collections.

9. In general, Hispanics had left parts of Southern California and the Southwest, not Central America. In 1990s the percentage of children with Spanish surnames in the area’s school system jumped from 13 to 23 percent; see Rothman and Davis, The Grit Beneath the Glitter, 11. Males slightly outnumbered females in Las Vegas until the late 1990s. In 1997 about 53 percent of the population was female. For a better look at such social and economic statistics, see U.S. Census Bureau figures for 1990 available online at factfinder.census.gov. See also M. Gottdiener, Claudia C. Collins, and David R. Dickens, Las Vegas: The Social Production of an All-American City (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1999), 93–95, 113–14.

10. Las Vegas Perspective, 1991, 72; Las Vegas Perspective, 1993, 51. See also “Historical Las Vegas Visitor Statistics,” available from Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, 3150 Paradise Road, Las Vegas. See too, Gottdiener et al., Las Vegas, 113–14.

11. On mega-resorts of the late 1990s, see Simran S. Sethi, “Reinventing the Neon Jungle: Ramifications of the Las Vegas Strip’s Mega-Resort Developments on Class Hierarchy,” 2000, unpublished manuscript, UNLV Special Collections. Also, Gregory W. Goussak, “An Estimate of the Impact that Mega-Resort Casino/Hotels Have on Existing Las Vegas Strip Casino/Hotels,” 1994, unpublished manuscript, UNLV Special Collections. Also, Review-Journal, July 23, 1989; Robert D. McCracken, Las Vegas: The Great American Playground (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997). On the Bellagio, see Business Week, October 12, 1998.

12. Valerie S. Burmester, “Themed Architecture and Interior Design Now the Rule Rather Than the Exception,” Indian Gaming, March 1997, 12–14. Barbara Land and Myrick Land, A Short History of Las Vegas (Reno: University of Las Vegas Press, 1999).

13. In 2007 the Transport Workers Union of America succeeded in organizing dealers at the new Wynn Las Vegas and Caesars Palace. Dealers at the Wynn voted 149 to 44 to unionize. The vote at Caesars Palace was 380 in favor, 128 against. Honolulu Advertiser, December 24, 2007; Sun, September 23, 1990; and Review-Journal, May 5, 1991.

14. Interview with Mark Massagli, Las Vegas, June 12, 1997. Also, Sun, September 23, 1990.

15. Sun, January 30, 1990; August 14, 1990; and November 8, 1990; Review-Journal, November 5, 1990. On the Culinary since 1985, see Courtney Alexander, “Rise to Power: The Recent History of the Culinary Union in Las Vegas,” in Rothman and Davis, The Grit Beneath the Glitter, 145–75.

16. Interview with Jim Arnold, May 23, 1998. Arnold headed the Culinary during the Frontier strike. For an overview of the strike, see Hal Rothman, Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century (New York: Routledge, 2002), 82–84; and Alexander, “Rise to Power,” 156–61, 173–74. The Elardis had previously owned a small nonunion hotel and casino in Laughlin, Nevada, where wages and working conditions were notoriously low.

17. Sun, May 1, 1994; Alexander, “Rise to Power,” 169–70.

18. The Mandalay Bay hired five thousand employees, and the Venetian about four thousand. See Dave Berns, “Recruitment Drive Begins at the Bellagio,” Review-Journal, March 31, 1998.

19. Ibid. On the labor shortage, see also John G. Edwards, “Casino Workers Soon to Be Hot Commodity,” Review-Journal, June 6, 1993; and Alana Roberts, “Survey Qualified Workers Scarce in Nevada,” Sun, February 4, 2005.

20. Roughly half of the Culinary’s new members were African American, Hispanic, or Asian, most of whom had never belonged to a labor organization. Perhaps a fifth of the new members worked as maids, many of whom were the daughters of Mexican migrant farm workers. On the Culinary’s recent success, see “Organized Labor in the 21st Century: The Las Vegas Hotel and Culinary Workers Union Local 226,” at www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/organized-labor-21st-century-las-vegas-hotel-and-culinary-workers-union-local-226. Also, Alexander, “Rise to Power, 145–75; and Dorothee Benz, “Labor’s Ace in the Hole: Casino Organizing in Las Vegas,” paper presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, September 5, 2004, at www.ingentaconnect.com.

21. On new approaches to unionism, see Charles C. Heckscher, The New Unionism: Employee Involvement in the Changing Corporation (New York: Basic Books, 1988). On new approaches of the Culinary, Alexander, “Rise to Power,” 150–51.

22. Steven Green house, “Labor Rolls On in Las Vegas, Where Hotel Union Is a National Model,” New York Times, May 3, 2008; Alexander, “Rise to Power,” 155–56. Also, interview with Terry Greenwald, secretary-treasurer of the Las Vegas Bartenders Union, May 23, 2008.

23. Interview with Mike Magnani of Teamsters Local 995, June 24, 1998. Forty-one resorts had labor contracts with the Culinary in 1998; twenty-eight had deals with the Operating Engineers, and twenty had agreements with Teamsters Local 995. Fourteen resorts had contracts with the Stagehands, and nine with the Musicians.

24. John Wilhelm to Frank Hanley, March 29, 1994, folder: Frontier File, Papers of Operating Engineers 501, Las Vegas.

25. Review-Journal, May 27, 1994. See Mike Davis, “Class Struggle in Oz,” in Rothman and Davis, The Grit Beneath the Glitter, 176–84.

26. Review-Journal, July 30, 1997. In October 1993, some fifteen hundred union members picketed the Santa Fe to protest management’s refusal to recognize the results of union representation elections, which labor had won. On the Santa Fe protests, see Sun, July 7, 1995. See also Benz, “Labor’s Ace in the Hole”; Alexander, “Rise to Power,” 145–75; and Review-Journal, July 30, 1997.

27. See Harold Meyerson, “Las Vegas as a Workers’ Paradise: The Hotel Workers’ Union Boosted Wages and Transformed Dead-End Jobs into Middle-Class Careers in the Very Belly of the Casino Economy,” American Prospect 15 (January 2004): 38–44, at www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article-las_vegas_as_a_workers_paradise.