Teamsters, Rio spar over consultant

By Dave Berns
Review-Journal

      One side views him as a communicator, the other as a union buster.
      Whatever the name tag, labor consultant Mark Garrity has been working in recent months to help defeat the effort of Teamster's Local 995 to organize Rio phone operators and warehouse workers.
      Garrity is known in his profession as a "persuader," a well-paid hired gun who has been involved in several battles since 1985 to defeat unionizing efforts at Las Vegas area hotels.
      "My opinion is there are no unions in this country today," he said. "There are businesses that have usurped that term and wrapped themselves in that mantle. They approach the old protection rackets of the 1940s."
      In recent weeks, Garrity has met with hundreds of Rio employees, extolling the virtues of the Mardi Gras-themed off-Strip property, explaining why management and not the union best represents their interests.
      "I mostly listen at this stage of the game," Garrity said. "I told them I am another layer of communication who reports to the executive office and is free of the politics and restrictions of the normal day-to-day way of doing business.
      Teamster organizers paint a very different picture of Garrity. They describe him as a slick-talking operator who wins the confidence of potential union supporters, convincing them to defeat any organizing attempts.
      "Most people think he's just someone in there who's having these (meetings) to try and keep the union out," said Ray Isner, the leader organizer for Teamsters Local 995. "Garrity's whole thing is he comes in with, `I'm your friend, I feel your pain' crap."
      Since its 1990 opening, the Rio has been transformed into one of Las Vegas trendiest locales with its roof-top night club, all-suites hotel and nightly Mardi Gras parade that appeals to a relatively young, upscale demographic.
      To Rio Chief Operating Officer Dave Hanlon, the Rio's 5,200 employees are among the best in the business, with many wanting to work at one of the city's in-properties.
      "This has been a preferred place to work with the lowest turnover of anybody in town," Hanlon said. "Does that mean everybody's 100 percent happy? Of course not."
      Yet, to hear some Rio workers tell it, the nonunion hotel and casino taxes their energy to the limit by minimizing staffing levels and maximizing workloads to ensure healthy profit margins for the publicly owned operation.
      "The main reason why we're all getting together is because we're being treated like crap," said one Rio employee who requested anonymity. "It's pretty bad the way people are treated. I hope at least if we don't become union, the management straightens up and realizes they can't treat people like dogs anymore."
      Reservation clerks tell stories of having to ask permission to go to the bathroom, of documenting every time they leave their desks to make copies on a copy machine.
      Hotel operators complain about answering 140 phone calls each an hour, and not being allowed to take a break for four hours. When that break comes it lasts for 15 minutes.
      "It's very stressful," said another worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The reason it's so stressful is because of the conditions we're working under, but this has changed since we had these meetings."
      Garrity's mandatory hourlong meetings provide him with a stage to sell his anti-union philosophy to the Rio's front-line workers. He explains that unions are little more than independent businesses that are only concerned with maintaining a power position.
      "I have an advocacy position in life very similar to a defense attorney vs. a plaintiff's attorney," Garrity said. "Labor organizers in this country are not very happy in a system in which the other side gets a hearing."
      The 50-year-old native Chicagoan who favors cowboy boots and blue jeans is well paid for his work. Garrity received $600,000 for his successful defeat of a 1995 drive to organize security guards at Excalibur and Luxor, according to paperwork filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.
      That same year, he was paid $215,000 for defeating a union push to organize casino games manufacturer Sigma Game Inc., according to a federal filing.
      In 1990, Garrity was paid $81,061 for helping kill a push to unionize stagehands at The Mirage.
      "Garrity gave some insight on how the union would handle itself and attended meetings where management spoke," said Mirage Resorts spokesman Alan Feldman.
      Martin Levitt, an ex-union buster who underwent a self-described awakening in the late 1980s and has gone on to consult Teamsters Local 995 about Garrity's techniques, characterized the Rio consultant as a "hired gun," and "corporate terrorist."
      "The ruse that union busters like to showcase is by using the threat of unionization they can create a kinder and gentler company, but it's all a ruse -- crap," Levitt said.
      Garrity, however, said his role is to do just that, build a more understanding work environment that gives line workers a greater sense of power.
      "What a persuader does is speak for the defense position, and this riles the unions," he said. "What the Teamsters are saying is we get to sue you but you don't get to hire a defense counsel."