BARBWIRE
Contents
Right
to fire & evil twin spawned 50 years ago today
by
ANDREW BARBANO
From the 7-4-99
Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune
UPDATED
8-20-2007, 1-29-2012
The Fourth of July will always be tarnished for Nevada workers.
Monday, July 4, 1949, marked the moment they began morphing from people
into interchangeable parts.
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BACK TO THE FUTURE? RENO (8-20-2007) —Because of management stonewalling (standing fast on an offer of a measly 13-cent per hour raise!), Culinary Local 226 has scheduled strike votes on Aug. 30 for its members at the Grand Sierra (formerly the Reno Hilton, northern Nevada's largest gambling property) and Circus Circus in downtown Reno. MORE |
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In an attempt to win fair wages, members of the Culinary
Union walked off the job on what was then Sparks-Reno's busiest weekend
of the year.
Tourists were nonetheless well-treated at strike and non-strike
establishments. People remained fairly amicable while visitors were here.
Some of the richest men in town, including legendary developer
and political power broker Norman Biltz, worked as strikebreaking
bartenders. They high-heartedly announced they would donate their wages
to the strikers. The matter was settled by July 8.
The new contract called for fry cooks at first-tier gambling
halls to earn $1.375 per hour. A captain or hostess would earn $1.00 per
hour.
That was almost 700 points down the consumer price index.
Northern Nevada wage scales today remain lower than 1949
union rates, adjusted for inflation.
According to the Nevada Employment Security Dept., the average
restaurant cook in Reno makes about $8.50 per hour. Her Gomorrah South
counterpart earns about $10.00.
In 1949, their Reno ancestors made a union rate equal to
$9.27. Las Vegas will almost always average higher than Reno today due
to the much higher degree of union penetration in Southern Nevada. (The
figures are for 1997, the most recent year available.)
Maybe tips were lower in 1949. A Nineties bartender in Reno
averages $6.85 an hour, $8.43 in Las Vegas. A 1949 Reno mixologist earned
$10.32 adjusted for inflation.
A modern era Reno host averages about $6.50 an hour, a Las
Vegan gets about $8.00. When grandpa met grandma in Reno in 1949, a host
was making $6.74 union scale, adjusted for inflation. [1]
What
went wrong?
Rep. Walter Baring, D-Nev., delivered a warning at
the 1949 Sparks Labor Day celebration held in "B" Street Park.
(They may call it Victorian Blvd. today, but to me, it will always be
"B" Street.)
"The Taft-Hartley law takes away 'the hard-won rights'
of labor and in their place clamps handcuffs on the union man and the
union,'" Baring said, according to the September 6, 1949, Reno
Evening Gazette.
"Mr. Baring spoke of the need for proper employer-management
relations using Sparks as an example of a 'wholesome and healthy relationship'
between the two," the Gazette continued.
Today, Baring Blvd. snakes through a Sparks filled with union
demonstrations as increasingly frustrated workers shout to high heaven
for a fair piece of the pie.
It was not always thus. In 1927, the Reno Chamber of Commerce
published a commemorative book for the Nevada
Transcontinental Highways Exposition held in Idlewild Park.
For that event, the Golden State built the California Building
which still stands today.
"Labor conditions in Reno are ideal," the chamber
of commerce gushed. "With the close bond between the buyer and seller
of labor, strikes are unknown in Reno...All trades in Reno are on a union
basis."
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WORKERS MARCH FOR JUSTICE — Northern Nevada union members and their families march with hotel and restaurant workers in front of the Reno Flamingo Hilton in April of 1995. In 1994, Carpenters Hotel-Casino Workers Local 777/AFL-CIO won the first contested election for a large group of Reno hotel workers since the old Riverside Hotel in 1974. The Flamingo stonewalled negotiations with the Carpenters, but in 1999 agreed to recognize Culinary Local 86 to represent most of its non-gambling employees. Alas, Hilton sold the hotel shortly thereafter. Workers at the now-Golden Phoenix have no union contract. |
What happened to that well-paid workers paradise of which
Congressman Baring spoke in 1949?
The Republican-controlled congress in 1947 passed the Taft-Hartley
Act over President Harry Truman's veto. It allowed states to enact
what became known as right-to-work laws.
The "Committee of One Thousand" formed to break
the 1949 Culinary Fourth of July strike became the nucleus of a petition
campaign which succeeded in narrowly passing Nevada's right-to-work law
in 1952.
That measure forces unions to treat non-dues-paying non-members
as union members in most respects. Non-union members receive union-negotiated
wages and benefits. Unions must represent non-members in grievance and
disciplinary procedures.
Forced to provide services without compensation, labor organizations
have gradually weakened over the decades. Everyone's wages reflect that
erosion.
I have always felt that "right to work" laws represent
an illegal taking of private property without compensation under the Fifth
Amendment to our Constitution.
I think people should be able to voluntarily join unions,
but their unions should not be forced to spend member dues money serving
non-members who take a free ride on the labor of others.
Wages have not been the only casualty.
Nevada progressives recently shocked the country by winning
passage of a law adding sexual orientation to the list of employee classes
protected against discrimination. One lobbyist was amazed to find herself
"in the majority on this one."
Top gun gambling industry lobbyists, acting as individuals,
even testified in favor of the bill. The new governor signed it into law.
No one has noticed that if it made any difference, it would never have
passed.
Right-to-work has an equally evil twin. Nevada is a fire-at-will
state where people may be terminated for no reason at all. Workers, gay
or otherwise, have always been treated the same — as disposable.
If somebody doesn't like the color of your eyes, your skin
or your consort, you can be fired without recourse. State supreme court
decisions basically legalized age discrimination a decade ago.
Nevada workers stand so low today that they have no rights
without a personal or union contract.
Fifty years ago today marked the beginning of the end of
Nevada as a decent place to work. Paychecks and dignity have dwindled
accordingly.
Happy Independence Day. Don't
spend your good fortune all in one place.
Be well. Raise hell.
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More about the lack of Nevada workers' rights RON
PAUL: UNION BUSTER Conservative
lawsuit could return Right-to-Work to the voters Hitting
on 16 — Nevada workers have the right to lose History of Right-to-Work-for-Less in Nevada
[1] The
average Las Vegas bartender pay |
Copyright
© 1999-2005, 2006, 2007, 2012 Andrew Barbano
