EDITORIAL: Obamacare might trigger downtown hotel strike

Several downtown hotels could see up to 2,000 union workers go on strike if new contracts aren’t hammered out by 5 a.m. Sunday morning, a decidedly unhealthy move for the slowly recovering local economy. And make no mistake, health — in the form of the Affordable Care Act — has a lot to do with why the labor dispute exists in the first place.

As reported by the Review-Journal’s Howard Stutz, two downtown properties operated by Boyd Gaming Corp. — the Fremont and Main Street Station — reached tentative agreements with Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165 on Tuesday. The El Cortez also struck a tentative deal this week. However, as of Wednesday night, six properties still lacked agreements because of the burdensome costs of the Affordable Care Act.

Yes, as if Obamacare hasn’t already caused enough problems, the law is poised to start a disruptive downtown strike.

The Wall Street Journal’s Kris Maher and Melanie Trottman reported Tuesday that employers nationwide are in disputes with unions over ACA-related cost increases ranging from 5 percent to 12.5 percent. The battle is over who will pay for the new mandates, such as coverage for dependent children up to age 26 and the tax on unions’ premium “Cadillac” health plans starting in 2018.

Mr. Maher and Ms. Trottman specifically cited negotiations between downtown Las Vegas properties and the Culinary and Bartenders unions, stating agreement was needed “on a series of issues, the thorniest of which involve new ACA-related cost increases, according to the union[s].”

The irony is that the Culinary and the rest of Big Labor were instrumental in creating the ACA, heaping resources into electing President Barack Obama and Democratic majorities in Congress in 2008, then supporting the law when the American people didn’t want it. Yet unions don’t want to pay full freight for a law of their own creation, nor do they want to help anybody but themselves avoid Obamacare’s onerous mandates and costs. Rather than advocate for repeal of the law to lessen the burdens on all employees — unionized or not — and working families across the country, the unions want exemptions from the law, leaving everybody else stuck with it.

That’s not how it should work. Unions pushed for the law and should now have to live with all its ramifications — most notably the costs — just like everybody else. Gaming companies have a clear understanding of what they can afford and which costs can be passed on to their customers. Boyd Gaming and its Culinary and Bartender members found a way to work things out, which is laudable, as is the fact that the other properties and union officials remain in talks and appear committed to working out a new contract.

A strike would be bad news for everybody — Culinary and Bartender unions and their members, the hotels and the city of Las Vegas. Strikes are not picnics. They are often very ugly, putting visitors in the crossfire, as the Culinary was more than happy to do last October at the Cosmopolitan. And that was just for a protest. It’s not unreasonable to believe that a strike could escalate matters.

It’s in everyone’s best interest to make a deal.