How much is a smile worth?
On Friday, I, along with dozens of others, was dismissed from jury duty
following a few hours of pointlessly sitting without ever
seeing the inside of a courtroom. And so, with the unexpected free time, I got
my emissions check and then renewed my car registration. I followed that by
going to an accountant to sign my tax return.
So, my offerings to the Man, in all his guises, should be complete for
a while.
But one thing I was reminded of repeatedly on Friday was how used I am to
the vastly superior customer service offered on the Strip. My first question to the
county worker was interrupted by a dismissive sentence: "What I need you to do
is take a seat over there." Like I cared about her needs? I wanted to know the location of the nearest bathroom.
I admit I have become spoiled by bell desks that answer questions, security
people willing to give directions, and have learned to ignore the phony
smile that comes with what one L.A. Times colleague visiting here called the
"unctuous" way frontline employees treat guests. But living in Vegas has taught me that Holden Caufield was wrong
about phoniness; phoniness is the best in customer service.
Yes, the smiles are as fake as the empty wishes of good luck, but who
could be authentically friendly 40 hours a week working in front of partying
tourists? I can't think of a place in the country where customer requests and
concerns and questions are accepted more congenially and treated more
respectfully than in the tourist corridor of Vegas.
Yes, the resort's offering of happy workers with broad smiles sickened
Hunter Thompson, but did he ever try, and fail, to get the attention of the
cashier who likes to text at the gas station's mart?
Of course, the frontline workers in casinos earn vastly
more than the cashiers at the nearby mart. And the fake
smiles and friendly help have a price. The plastic bottle of cola I get at the
mart costs about $1 before taxes, whereas the same bottle, at some resorts on the
Strip, costs about $3 before taxes. I am not saying that $2 increase is going to
the frontline employee, as plenty of resort money is obviously going elsewhere. I
am simply saying that only the Strip offers such consistently great customer
service.
But how much is that smile worth?
(Photo by Sarah Gerke)
(Photo by Sarah Gerke)
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Vegas workers expanding unions
Everyone thinks of the Strip as unionized. And, except for the Venetian, in many ways it is. Certainly, one result is the extraordinary customer service Strip resorts provide. I was reading yesterday about the Service Gap, which is what academics are calling young clerks who text friends and talk on cellphones while you wait for their attention. I am familiar with the Service Gap from retail stores all over the Las Vegas Valley, especially during this busy time of year. However, I've never had any problems with the union employees who work in frontline positions at Strip resorts.Great customer service is one of the things that Vegas tourists count on. Steve Wynn made a fetish out of offering staggering customer service at his properties. In fact, customer service connoisseurs tell me that service at the Bellagio has not been the same since Wynn was bought out by MGM. For Wynn-level service, you now have only Wynn on the Strip.
On the other hand, we are talking nuance: Service at the Bellagio has been flawless in the experience of everyone I know who has visited, eaten, seen a show or just shopped there. It is not just the high-end resorts. I had great service staying at the Sahara and even Imperial Palace. I've rarely experienced anything but outstanding customer service on the Strip in hundreds of visits to different resorts for different reasons since 1999. The Service Gap in my world appears at the corner store and not on Las Vegas Boulevard.
How much of the credit for this goes to the unions is not easy to say. But certainly, Strip employees (unlike minimum-wage cashiers) see themselves as having a career more than a job by virtue of getting a living wage, employee retraining for job changes and growth (through an academy jointly sponsored by the union and resorts), and, especially, total health benefits.
Still, even in union resorts, not every job is in a union. Certain occupations have traditionally steered clear of unions. One of those occupations is Las Vegas card dealers, who feared that their own system of seniority and tip pooling and back-scratching, dating back decades, could be disrupted by a formal union structure. The last time a union tried to organize dealers, in 2001, the union was soundly rejected. The Review-Journal summarized the dismal results:
"In 2001, votes were held at 11 properties, with dealers at the Tropicana, Stratosphere and the New Frontier approving union representation.
"However, the only contract that materialized was for the 105 dealers at the New Frontier. The union was unable to negotiate contracts at the other two casinos and was decertified in 2002.
"Dealers at the Monte Carlo, Treasure Island, New York New York, Excalibur, MGM Grand, Bally's, Riviera and Las Vegas Hilton voted down representation in 2001."
But 2001 is ancient history in Vegas now. The one victory, New Frontier, is no longer even standing. But the main change from the perspective of dealers was Steve Wynn's 2006 decision to allow some supervisors to share in the dealers' tip pool. Of course, the possibility of changes to the way of sharing the tip pool and the maintenance of old Vegas ways for dealers had been the main appeal in rejecting the union in 2001.
So, in May dealers at Wynn voted to unionize by a roughly 3-1 ratio. Now the revolution is spreading. With parent company Harrah's going to a private equity company, over the weekend nervous dealers at Caesars Palace, also by a 3-1 ratio, made the choice to unionize.
Now that the barrier has been broken at two high-end resorts like Wynn and Caesars, there is the strong possibility that dealers at other properties will now follow and join the union.
(Photo by Sarah Gerke)
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The dirty laundry of Las Vegas
Though few noticed, last-minute negotiations last night allowed Las Vegas to escape a potentially devastating strike that could have thrown Strip operations into chaos.
Until last night, it had seemed there was little risk of a serious strike on the Strip. The mighty Culinary Workers Union Local 226, by far the most powerful union in Las Vegas, has been slowly and successfully making deals with resorts for months now to avoid the chance of a strike on the Strip.
Every casino on the Strip is unionized except the Venetian. The big players in town like Harrah's and MGM-Mirage settled on new contracts long ago. More recently, some downtown properties like the Golden Nugget settled and smaller resorts like the Sahara also cut new contracts with the culinary union. In fact, the only Strip resort that has not settled with the union is the Tropicana.
But the Strip had an Achilles' heel: laundry! By late yesterday it looked like all those successful contracts between the resorts and union were still going to fail at preventing a serious disruption of service on the Strip.
You see, left without a new contract was Mission Industries, whose 1,600 culinary union members clean the linens for about 50 casinos in Vegas. One union source told me about the potential impact of a Mission Industries strike yesterday:
"A strike would have had a huge impact as there is nowhere else where that kind of volume can be handled -- some of the properties rely on multiple deliveries in one day to keep clean linen stocked."
And last night the union people I communicated with were not optimistic as they entered a final negotiation before a planned strike that would have begun early this morning.
However, within an hour of what the union told me was the last-ditch negotiation, an agreement was reached and the strike averted.
The details have not been released until members ratify the contract. But the short version is that Las Vegas will continue to run by keeping its dirty laundry from interfering with business.
Until last night, it had seemed there was little risk of a serious strike on the Strip. The mighty Culinary Workers Union Local 226, by far the most powerful union in Las Vegas, has been slowly and successfully making deals with resorts for months now to avoid the chance of a strike on the Strip.
Every casino on the Strip is unionized except the Venetian. The big players in town like Harrah's and MGM-Mirage settled on new contracts long ago. More recently, some downtown properties like the Golden Nugget settled and smaller resorts like the Sahara also cut new contracts with the culinary union. In fact, the only Strip resort that has not settled with the union is the Tropicana.
But the Strip had an Achilles' heel: laundry! By late yesterday it looked like all those successful contracts between the resorts and union were still going to fail at preventing a serious disruption of service on the Strip.
You see, left without a new contract was Mission Industries, whose 1,600 culinary union members clean the linens for about 50 casinos in Vegas. One union source told me about the potential impact of a Mission Industries strike yesterday:
"A strike would have had a huge impact as there is nowhere else where that kind of volume can be handled -- some of the properties rely on multiple deliveries in one day to keep clean linen stocked."
And last night the union people I communicated with were not optimistic as they entered a final negotiation before a planned strike that would have begun early this morning.
However, within an hour of what the union told me was the last-ditch negotiation, an agreement was reached and the strike averted.
The details have not been released until members ratify the contract. But the short version is that Las Vegas will continue to run by keeping its dirty laundry from interfering with business.
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Harrah's and union make deal
A tip sent to me by a reporter from The Los Angeles Times and also put out in an e-mail Flash
by local political writer Jon Ralston both say that Harrah's has cut a deal for
a new service contract with the union representing many of their frontline
workers. This puts tremendous pressure on MGM/Mirage who are engaged in a
parallel process to cut a deal swiftly with the union. The rate of
growth, combined with the level of competition in Vegas right now for both customers
and quality employees, means that no major resort company wants a strike in 2007,
if it can be avoided. My guess is that when the details of the agreement emerge, Harrah's workers
will feel very pleased with the deal.
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Victory for Cabbies
As predicted on the Buffet yesterday the county has decided to repeal the rule preventing taxi cabs from getting kickbacks for delivering customers to topless bars based on the fact that it would be too hard and expensive to enforce. In fact, according to the Review-journal, taxi drivers are getting bribes from other businesses as well:
(Caveat: I support the free coffee; no one should be falling asleep behind the wheel and I am notorious for my own Diet Pepsi consumption.) So, the County has decided to abandon this area of enforcement altogether and leave it to taxis and businesses to sort out how much additional bribe a taxi driver deserves for delivering a customer who has already paid the taxi a full fare for the trip.
Apparently, the clubs owners are already crumbling on a deal to present a united front to stop paying these kickbacks to cabbies - our own OPEC announcing a short-lived production quota. So, what does this mean for customers wanting to take a taxi ride to a topless bar or anywhere else? Don't ask your driver for advice; do your research and know where you want to go; insist on being taken there. And, always remember there is no such thing as free advice or tips in Las Vegas even if it does not cost you anything. Think of talking to humans here (at least, in their work capacity) like seeing an advertisement. Most locals you contact for "impartial" advice on restaurants, production shows, nightclubs or topless bars including concierges, bell desk employees, valets and, of course, taxi drivers generally have been recruited to market answers to all of these questions to you.
(photo by Wendell Donahoo/HBO)
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Elected officials Plan to Take Stand between Taxis and Topless Bars
The strip club Vs. taxi cab controversy is heating up again with the Clark County Commission set to review an ordinance today banning topless bars from paying per head bounties to taxi cabs for delivering customers (who, of course, have already paid the taxi driver to be taken to the club). The problem is that limos are not included by the regulations, and, as a result, there is no enforcement of the ordinance. Commissioners can amend the rules to include limos but it seems more likely that they will suspend the regulation altogether and leave the clubs and taxi drivers to work it out amongst themselves. If this happens it will be disgraceful. In the Review-Journal today, Clark County Commissioner, Tom Collins (using the sort of logic that gave Vegas politics its wholesome reputation) says, of these kickbacks: "It's the American way, It's the Nevada way, anyway." | Bookmark it:
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Wayne Newton and Local 369
In Sunday's print version of The Movable Buffet I talked about the State of the Wayner and only had space to touch briefly on his current dispute with union musicians. For those interested I wrote a more detailed look at the Local 369's walkout on Wayne Newton show for Las Vegas Weekly. In that article Newton and the president of Local 369 both pinpoint the importance of a 1989 strike by the union that was dealt a fatal blow after two weeks when Newton, at the time perhaps the biggest star in Las Vegas, crossed the picket line. As a result of that strike casinos began moving shows to taped music and also casino orchestras went out of fashion. Nowadays, casinos pay a headliner with a lump sum and the headliner must pay their own musicians. So, in this case, the union is in the awkward position of having a problem with Wayne Newton but not with The Flamingo where he is performing since it is a Harrah's property and that company is on good terms with all of the local unions. (photo by Christine Cotter/LAT)
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Of Topless Bars and Taxicabs
The war between taxi drivers and topless bars has escalated. Apparently, according to Jeff German's column, at a meeting on Monday, management of all the major strip clubs agreed to form a united front to end the practice of paying kickbacks to taxi drivers. When I arrived here in 1999 the bounty paid by clubs was around $20 a head for each customer in a taxi. Since then that number has been hitting $70 thanks to the competition between the many high end new clubs that have opened like Treasures, Scores and Sapphire. I hate to side with rich club owners over the taxi drivers. But the arrogance of the taxi drivers is amazing. Greg Bambic, a Vegas taxi driver, is quoted in German's column saying:
I just don't see how the clubs can be successful without the cabdrivers and the limousine drivers. We bring them 85% of their business. They can't get along without us.
This is outrageous since the taxi drivers are already being paid by their customers and there is no reason the drivers should be collecting extra money from the club. This practice is technically not allowed by County regulations. But the County regulations are simply not enforced and, even if they were, don't apply to limousine drivers, only taxis. Tourists are the ones getting shafted in the end with higher covers and more expensive drinks. I have suggested before that the best way you can fight back is to demand that a driver let you out across the street from your strip club of choice. Or, if you allow the driver to take you to the club, make sure the driver agrees to forgive the meter as your ride is being paid for already by the strip club.
(photo by Wendell Donahoo/HBO)
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