Strategic Integration, Contract
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STRATEGIC INTEGRATION, CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION, AND COMPREHENSIVE CONTRACT CAMPAIGN EFFECTIVENESS: A CASE STUDY OF THE CULINARY WORKERS UNION, HERE LOCAL 226’S 2002 COMPREHENSIVE CONTRACT CAMPAIGN A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Paul Everett Hayes January 2006 © 2006 Paul Everett Hayes ABSTRACT This thesis is a case study of the comprehensive contract campaign that the Culinary Union, HERE Local 226 utilized in its 2002 round of negotiations with casino operators in Las Vegas. The focus of this study is on how the comprehensive contract campaign strategy used by the Culinary Union increased the local’s bargaining power in the negotiations. This case study links the success of the 2002 comprehensive contract campaign to the local’s prior practices, long-term strategies, as well as its organizational structure and culture. This case study also examines how the political, social, and economic context of Las Vegas’s casino industry influenced the Culinary Union’s comprehensive contract campaign. It describes the interactive relationship between these external contextual factors, the local’s strategic choices, and industrial relations outcomes in Las Vegas’s casino industry. This case study describes how the Culinary Union, by using the organizing model of contract administration, created an organizational culture and structure that lead to increases in the quality and quantity of rank-and-file participation in the union, and how this benefited the union in its 2002 comprehensive contract campaign. In addition to citing specific examples from the 2002 contract campaign itself, this case study uses the industrial relations literature relating to union commitment and participation, in order to support this argument. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Paul Hayes was born in 1977 in Schenectady, NY, where he also grew up. He graduated from SUNY-Binghamton in 2000, with a B.A. in Political Science. While attending SUNY-Binghamton, Paul helped Prof. David Cingranelli with his research on international labor rights. Upon graduating Paul worked as a research intern with HERE Local 26 in Boston, after which he moved to Venezuela to teach English. When he returned from Venezuela, Paul interned with the New York State AFL-CIO and worked on the American Labor Studies Center. Following that internship, Paul began his graduate studies at Cornell’s ILR School. During the summer, between his first and second years at Cornell, Paul interned with the Culinary Union in Las Vegas. It was at this time when most of the fieldwork for this thesis was completed. After finishing his course work at Cornell, Paul began to work as a Researcher for SEIU Local 504 in Pittsburgh. iii Dedicated to the men and women of the American Labor Movement. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank the members, staff, and leadership of the Culinary Union Workers Union, HERE Local 226 for granting me the time, resources, and access that made this thesis possible. I would especially like to thank Chris Bohner for hiring me as a research intern for the Culinary Workers Union and acting as a host during my time in Las Vegas. I would also like to thank Jeff Nelson for convincing Local 226 to take me on as an intern and allowing me to study their local. I would also like to thank Ted Pappageorge for taking the time out of his busy schedule for several multi-hour interviews. His insights were invaluable for this thesis. I would also like to everyone in Las Vegas who I interviewed for this thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank my housemates in Las Vegas, whose casual conversation provided me with lots anecdotal information about what it is like to work in a casino. I would like to extend an extra special thanks to my thesis committee, Ileen Devault, Kate Bronfenbrenner, and Bruce Tracey, who have been endlessly patient and understanding while I struggled to finish this thesis. I would especially like to thank Kate Bronfenbrenner for helping to set up my internship in Las Vegas and for the guidance she provided me with while I was at Cornell. I would also like to thank Emma Stephens for proof reading this thesis. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their love and support. v TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.........................................................................................iii DEDICATION ..............................................................................................................iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ..............................................................................................vi LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................xii Chapter I: Introduction ...................................................................................................1 Internal and External Context.....................................................................................3 Culture, Long-Term Strategies, and Prior Practices...................................................4 Revitalization..............................................................................................................8 Organization of Thesis .............................................................................................13 Chapter II: Literature Review.......................................................................................15 Introduction ..............................................................................................................15 Collective Bargaining and Union Revitalization......................................................18 Comprehensive Contract Campaigns .......................................................................26 Strategic Integration .................................................................................................36 Contract Administration and the Organizing Model................................................43 Chapter III: Methodology.............................................................................................52 Chapter IV: Las Vegas Background.............................................................................55 Introduction ..............................................................................................................55 The City of Las Vegas..............................................................................................55 The Las Vegas Casino Industry................................................................................56 Las Vegas Gaming Industry Workforce...................................................................60 Patterns of Collective Bargaining in Las Vegas’s Casino Industry .........................61 vi History of the Casino Industry in Las Vegas ...........................................................63 Early History ........................................................................................................63 Las Vegas’s Golden Era.......................................................................................65 Corporatization of Las Vegas...............................................................................69 Las Vegas Gaming Industry in Decline................................................................71 Mirage Phase Las Vegas......................................................................................72 Present-Day Las Vegas ........................................................................................74 Conclusion................................................................................................................76 Chapter V: Culinary Workers Union Local 226 – History and Context ......................77 Introduction ..............................................................................................................77 History of the Culinary Union through the 1980s....................................................78 Early History ........................................................................................................78 Corporatization of Las Vegas...............................................................................81 Death of Al Bramlet and decline of the Culinary Union......................................82 1984 Strike............................................................................................................83 Revitalization of the Culinary Union .......................................................................86 Mopping up after the 1984 Strike.........................................................................87 Obtaining Card-Check Neutrality along the Strip ...............................................89 Culinary Union during the 1990s .............................................................................94 MGM Organizing Campaign................................................................................95 Frontier Strike ......................................................................................................97 Santa Fe Organizing Campaign.........................................................................100