Tropicana, Unions Reach Agreement

-- Tradeshow Week, 8/28/2008 2:58:00 PM

Both workers and managers at the Tropicana Hotel & Casino can breathe easier – thanks to a new labor agreement. After more than 15 months of on-again, off-again negotiations, representatives of Tropicana Entertainment, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 resumed negotiations Aug. 20. Two days later, a new five-year contract was ratified by union members.

 Nearly 750 Tropicana workers had been working under terms of a contract that expired May 31, 2007. Issues of contention included wages, health insurance, pensions, guaranteed work weeks and the use of part-time workers. 

Until the Aug. 22 ratification, Tropicana was the last of approximately 40 properties to have not come to a collective bargaining agreement with its workers. Throughout last summer and fall, new contracts were signed at MGM Mirage, Harrah’s Entertainment and individual properties on the Strip and downtown. 

According to Culinary Union spokesman Chris Bohner, moving from impasse to a successful contract was the result of fresh leadership at Tropicana. Company President and CEO Scott Butera, who recently took responsibility for day-to-day operations from company owner William Yung III, was the key ingredient for success, Bohner said.  

“I think it’s widely recognized that Yung was bad for the industry, bad for workers and the cause of a significant part of the problems we had in contract negotiations,” he added. “Scott Butera is an experienced operator who wants to restore the level of service that the Tropicana has been known for in the last several decades.”  

Labor negotiations were put on hold earlier this year when Tropicana Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the result of financial problems incurred after the company's loss of its Atlantic City gaming license in December 2007. Butera was named president in March and then CEO a few months later in order to help restructure the company strategy as it reorganized. 

Tropicana Entertainment spokesman Hud Englehart said the company is pleased to move forward with the new contract. 

“The agreement with the Culinary Union marks a new chapter for Tropicana, one where we expect to work together with our new partners to strengthen the Tropicana brand,” Englehart said. “We think the new agreement respects the needs of our work force and the business environment in which our company is operating.”

Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer and lead negotiator D. Taylor also appears satisfied with this long-awaited resolution. 

“Our union’s members stood with the Tropicana workers these last 15 months, determined that no Las Vegas worker would be left behind,” Taylor said in a recent statement. “We commend Scott Butera and the new team at the Tropicana for making sure that their property remains part of the Las Vegas dream.”