Vegas Teamster Is on Her Own

Las Vegas—Rebecca Smith is trying her best to find the silver lining in the clouds overhead.

Smith, a 17-year member of the Teamsters Local 631 here, worked in the union's convention training program for seven years and was its director and lead instructor until she was fired June 13. She's taking the opportunity to start her own business, using what she's learned about tradeshow labor to try and help show organizers save money.

Her termination apparently was based on philosophical differences with current union leadership, although both sides were diplomatic in describing the rift.

"The trustees (of the convention training program) felt it needed some improvements," said Wayne King, secretary-treasurer of the union. "Right now we're going through a formal recruitment process to find a new coordinator to run the program."

The board of trustees consists of King, the union's president and vice president, and representatives of three convention contracting firms, Freeman, GES Exposition Services and Renaissance.

"My termination was based on my union activities," Smith said. "I feel it's a shame because we made a lot of headway."

The Las Vegas Teamsters' convention training program is one of the most progressive in the country. Apprentices must have 288 hours of class time and 2,000 hours of on-the-job training to become journeymen. The program is registered with the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Nevada State Apprenticeship Council and Board of Education. Smith had been working with the College of Southern Nevada to make courses college-accredited.

However, King said, the program's trustees felt it was taking too long for apprentices to complete training.

"We've had apprentices for up to four or five years before they journeyed out," he said. "Our goal is to have them journeyed out by a minimum of two years, preferably one. We see no reason why they can't get 2,000 hours in one year rather than five."

He added that apprentices only get paid for the hours they're in training. "If you take somebody and put them in a program they can't get out of for four years, they can't make a living," he said.

Smith stood by the program, saying that rushing the training could compromise the quality of work done on the showfloor.

King said the convention training program would remain intact, but undergo some changes. He added that the plan to seek college accreditation would go forward.

For her part, Smith is taking the blow in stride.

She said she would remain a member of the union, and she has also started paperwork to register a limited liability corporation named Samerica. The new company, co-founded with Denise Malwitz, a fellow Teamster and former Czarnowsky project manager, will consult with associations and other show organizers.

Smith said, "I can show them how to cut their labor costs significantly. I think it's high time the associations met the labor unions. We're not scary people, and we know that they pay the bills for everybody in the building."

She said she plans to focus on clients in the medical sector and already has a few prospects. Asked how she would help them save money, Smith replied: "I'd offer two different ways of going about it: A. We get the labor directly, which is a huge savings, or B. I can negotiate a lower cost with the general contractors. I have a lot of knowledge and contacts in different cities, so I'd show them how to lower their hourly rate."

She cited the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute's Pack Expo as an example of how labor can be contracted through an employment broker that is bonded and has a contract with the union, rather than through a general contractor. "No more holding freight hostage until a bill is paid," she said.

PMMI has been doing its own general contracting for Pack Expo since 2003, managing the various contracts (some of which do go to the large contracting firms) and billing exhibitors for services, rather than hiring someone else to do so. Jim Pittas, director of the show, was unavailable for comment by press time, but Smith said, "I have spent a great deal of time looking at how Pack Expo handles their show, and it is quite amazing. They have few complaints, the labor is good, and the price is right for exhibitors and the association alike."

Atlanta-based Tradeshow Logistics began offering a similar model three years ago. The firm charges its show organizer clients a fee to act as general contractor, then subcontracts out all services and bills the show for them.

"People would ask if we were a consultant or general contractor, and it was freaking some of them out, because they thought what we did was so different," said B.J. Enright, president of Tradeshow Logistics. "So, we say we're a general contractor with a consulting approach. We do all the planning, manage all the services. The true difference is, instead of making our money off material handling or general services, we charge a management fee."

Enright added that she can do as little, or as much, as her clients want, and they hire her for various configurations of services, from strategic consulting only to full-blown general contracting.

What's missing, she said, is what Samerica will offer.

"The labor still kind of belongs to whoever we subcontract to," she said. "If the industry started to make a change and more people did what Pack Expo's doing, or used somebody like us, we'd need people like Rebecca to provide that labor expertise. That's truly the next level. If I want to drive more money to my client's bottom line, labor's the best way to do that."

Show organizers have been slow to embrace these new models, however.

As president of Modern Exposition Services and current president of the Exhibition Services & Contractors Assn., Aaron Bludworth may have some insight into why that is.

"Though the concept outlined is certainly interesting, and it is always refreshing to see efforts toward innovation, I do not see how such a practice could benefit the industry," Bludworth said. "Inserting a middle man into the labor process seems to me to be an automatic way to ensure more cost shifting in an already complicated economic system."

Bludworth also pointed out that general contractors negotiate aggressively with labor unions for the best rates, and there is no way to effectively reduce the minimum amount of human capital necessary to serve a tradeshow's needs.

"Though labor is certainly a major economic component of tradeshows, it is a very complex element of the industry and requires much more intense management than simple liaising," he said.

Bludworth added that contractors mark up their costs to pay for things like insurance and training that have to come from somewhere, regardless of who's overseeing the service; and that profits achieved by GES, the largest general contractor owned by a publicly traded company (Viad), are in line with those of other public companies.

"In general, contractors are not reaping exorbitant profits from their services," he said, "Nor are they specifically related to labor."

Bludworth concluded, "There are numerous examples of labor brokers in the industry, (and) in nearly every case the practice has increased costs. I am confident that show managers will do much better by continuing to negotiate their best deal with a general service contractor."