LVCVA

The LVCVA is the official destination marketing organization of Las Vegas and operates the Convention Center and Cashman Center. The LVCVA brings visitors to Las Vegas and Clark County by promoting tourism, conventions, meetings and special events.

LVCVA web site

 

The second and last mediation session for bargaining happened on Friday the 16th, the results are that the union and management are at an impasse.  The union rejected additional proposals of cuts to benefits when management rejected union proposals of limitations on mandatory furloughs and guarantees of no layoffs.  Management proposed benefit cuts would have been unequally applied with workers who are capped out in pay not being as severely impacted as workers who have not yet reached pay caps.  Management has not moved off the zero percent COLA except to ask for additional concessions such freezing step increases for a year and still using mandatory furlough days.

The union attempted during the two mediation sessions to make a serious offer of a zero percent COLA in return an agreement by management to cap mandatory furloughs at one per pay period and to report to PERS the first 96 hours of furloughs per year as time worked so that PERS benefits would not be impacted for this time.  This offer was rejected by management.

As a result of constant rejections by management of reasonable offers by the union, we are sticking with the final counterproposal of a 2.1 % and the collective bargaining is at an impasse.

The union attempted to negotiate in good faith, but ran up against a brick wall with management refusing to budge and expecting additional concessions that were not on the table.

The next step is to move to fact finding as outlined in NRS 288.200.

The Union made another COLA offer of 2.1% which is .2% less than the current CPI of 2.3%.  Management stuck to their proposal of a 0% COLA.  The bargaining team informed management that a polling of the membership at eight meetings held last week resulted in a 96% vote in favor of no concessions in bargaining.

Management again stated that with no concessions, no continuation of mandatory furloughs and a COLA for 2010, that layoffs would happen.  The Union again pointed out that LVCVA has reserve funds in its Debt Payment Fund.  This Fund has increased its year end balance from $18 million a few years ago to a projected year end balance of $51 million for the end of fiscal year 2011.  Management states that they will have a $4 million shortfall this year, but does not want to use reserve funds to cover this shortfall.  As a point of reference, Clark County did use reserve funds to submit a balanced budget which does not include any layoffs or concessions by the union in wages or benefits.

Since the Union and management are at a stalemate at this point in time, both sides agreed to Federal mediation to move negotiations forward.

The next bargaining session will be set at a date and time to be determined based on the federal mediator’s schedule.

We had two short bargaining sessions with LVCVA management.  At the first session, based on conversations with Union leaders, a 5% across the board COLA was submitted by the Union to management.

At the session today (April 27, 2010), LVCVA presented another glum financial picture, which was countered by the Unions' analysis of the tourism and economic outlook projections by numerous economists.

Las Vegas has seen a six month period of growth indicating the worst of the recession is behind us.  The Union believes that the economy will continue to improve this year with gaming revenues up.  Room rates are also starting to rise which will yield additional room tax revenue.

Management scoffed at the Unions proposal for a 5% COLA failing to recognize the ongoing, unmatched by management, 10% loss in pay to members based on management's implementation of mandatory furloughs.  The Union's position is that it is time for management to repay employees for their sacrifice during the worst of the recession.

Management offered a 0% COLA and despite the fact that we have agreed to discuss only the cost of living, management actually proposed a freeze in step increases from July 1, 2010 though the end of fiscal year 2011 and to freeze longevity payments to the 2010 amount.  Of course, management will not guarantee that there will be no layoffs even if concessions are given.  Again, we are to only discuss the cost of living adjustments. We will respond at the next session May 6, 2010 at 9:00 am at the Union hall.

LVCVA Bargaining Update
April 19, 2010

The initial bargaining session for the 2010 COLA re-opener will be on Thursday April 22, 2010 at 2:00 pm in the HR Training Room.

The bargaining consists of Sam Noel, Karla Nolan, Miles Rodela, Don Guardino, and August Hodges.  Dave Peter will be the Chief Negotiator. Jamey Bailey the SEIU Staff Representative for LVCVA will also be at all bargaining
sessions to provide support.

President Al Martinez will be present at the first bargaining session.

All LVCVA SEIU Members may attend the bargaining sessions as observers as seating permits.  Members attending bargaining sessions must either be off duty on use their own leave time to attend.

Tourism numbers down, but higher than expect. LVCVA releases 2009 tourism numbers for Las Vegas.

Read about it here:  LVCVA Growth Article

View the video from Fox 5 News here: http://www.fox5vegas.com/video/22517884/index.htm

You can read the latest LVCVA bargaining update here:  LVCVA Bargaining Update 02-05-10

Last week LVCVA management recklessly released a memo among staff that called for mandatory furloughs.

Worksite Union Leadership met briefly with management and shared our position that any imposed furloughs clearly violates multiple articles of our Collective Bargaining Agreement. 

Salaries and hours of work are specifically affected by mandated furloughs. These are two tenets of mandatory subjects of bargaining covered by NRS 288.150. We consider this illegal action a high priority that needs immediate attention. 

That was the message President Al Martinez delivered to the LVCVA Board. He also urged the Board to immediately advise LVCVA management to reconsider their actions.

We’ve filed a grievance and have recommended that we bypass the internal process and move to an expedited arbitration process. We don’t want to go down that path but will take the necessary means.

Though Rossi agreed to meet with us in a short conversation after the Board meeting, he’s now refusing to meet with us. From what we understand, some furloughs have been scheduled as early as this coming Sunday.

Whether you’re in favor of furloughs or not, we cannot allow management to get away with breaking the law. Ultimately, any decision about furloughs is a choice that will only be made by the union membership.