New Labor Contract Ends Five-day Strike

Teamsters approve pact, resume work setting up at major tradeshows

By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 9/20/2004

Las Vegas—When convention workers from Teamsters Local Union 631 went on strike against general service contractors, it brought attention to a city known for its relatively problem-free labor situation. Lucky for Las Vegas, the dispute was settled quickly.

The new, three-year agreement between the union and general service contractors GES Exposition Services and the Freeman Companies was approved Sept. 11, after less than a week of picketing. While neither side would discuss details of the agreed-upon contract, Local 631 Vice President Tommy Blitsch said it met with Teamsters' approval because it included "a lot more money."

The trouble started when the Teamsters' contract with Freeman and GES expired May 31. That contract was extended through June, and the tradeshow industry's two largest general contracting firms continued bargaining collectively with the union throughout the summer.

Despite both sides' claims that discussions were friendly, talk of a strike began circulating in July, with the disagreement centering on Teamsters' demands for pay increases to cover the rising cost of living and health care benefits. With the fall season and some of Las Vegas' largest shows approaching, an agreement remained out of reach.

Saying they were responding to the union's request, Freeman and GES delivered their "last, best and final offer" the morning of Sept. 2, expecting Teamsters to vote on the proposed contract at a scheduled meeting one week later.

Instead, that same day, just two hours after the close of MAGIC Marketplace, a large group (reported numbers varied from several hundred to a few thousand) of Teamsters walked out of the Las Vegas Convention Center, claiming they were sick. Most did not return to work the next day, leaving GES to finish the move-out single-handedly.

At an emergency meeting two days later, convention craft workers voted 1,250-18 against the proposed contract. A strike was declared the following morning, as picket lines formed at the service entrances to the LVCC, the Sands Expo & Convention Center and several of the city's smaller hotel convention centers.

David Hullett, a 20-year member of Local 631 and captain of the picket line at the LVCC loading dock, said health and welfare benefits were at the center of the dispute. Under the old contract, union members had to work 86 hours per month to receive health insurance, and could bank extra hours, said Hullett, adding that Freeman and GES wanted to require 143 hours of work before health insurance benefits kicked in.

Mark Jones, another Teamster for two decades, said the hours requirement was too high. "We work nights, weekends and very long days," Jones said. "But we can't average 45 hours a week. There just aren't that many tradeshows."

But according to Freeman and GES, the number of hours required to be eligible for benefits was not even addressed in the proposed contract. Rather, the contract included a wage increase of $3.75 per hour worked — an increase of just under 3 percent — as part of the overall offer to cover the Teamsters' rising costs.

"Freeman and GES are disappointed that the union leadership failed to educate their members on the terms of the proposed contract," the two firms said in a joint statement. "(We) have been negotiating in good faith with Local 631 representatives since March 2004 and made an offer that (we) believed was fair and equitable."

Meanwhile, the companies were scrambling to keep work going — not only on the move-out of MAGIC, but for the move-in of Tradeshow Week 200 shows Intl. Vision Expo West, set for Sept. 9–11 at the Sands, and MINExpo Intl., whose move-in starts about a month before its Sept. 27 opening at the LVCC. Several smaller shows were taking place around the city as well.

Ken McAvoy, vice president for Intl. Vision manager Reed Exhibitions, said that official contractor Freeman kept him abreast of developments and had both short- and long-term plans to deal with a variety of outcomes.

Declaring themselves "fully prepared to continue operating and servicing clients throughout the duration of this strike," both Freeman and GES maximized use of their own staffs, including flying personnel from around the country into Las Vegas, and sought alternative sources of labor.

"On certain days, we actually had more people than we needed," said McAvoy. He added that service staff from the Sands and other providers pitched in as well, with SOA Security's Frank Stroccia working around the clock to keep the show site secure.

As an additional surprise, without being asked, local show management firm ConvExx on Sept. 7 took nine of its employees to the Sands to assist with the Intl. Vision move-in, "just to show that the exhibition industry in Las Vegas is committed to ensuring the Teamsters' strike doesn't impact the success of any shows in our city," said ConvExx COO David Audrain.

That firm's largest client, the Specialty Equipment Market Assn., will be holding its SEMA Show at the LVCC Nov. 2–5.

But not all was support and cooperation in the city. On Sept. 9, a Clark County District Court judge approved a request by Freeman and GES for a temporary restraining order to end the Teamsters' picketing. According to the request, union members were engaging in vandalism and intimidation at the site of protests.

By the following morning, facility entrances around the city were picket-free. But when asked why, Blitsch said it was not because of the restraining order, which merely underlined the Nevada state law governing strikes. Rather, it was because a tentative agreement between the union and contractors had been reached the night before.

But damage to the city's near-flawless reputation had already been done. "This is Las Vegas' first real black eye," said Peter Eelman, vice president of exhibitions for the Intl. Manufacturing Technology Show, which was going on in Chicago during the strike. Eelman, who said he's had his own brushes with striking convention workers, pointed out that Las Vegas has been riding a wave of popularity for several years now, "but this may be something that slows down that momentum."