Jul. 3--Union maids, food-service workers and bartenders voted Tuesday to approve new contracts with 17 Las Vegas hotel-casinos, leaving only downtown's struggling Golden Gate without a new five-year deal. 

Workers voted 808-3 to approve the new pacts, or 99.6 percent in favor, which union officials say accomplished all of their negotiation objectives. 

"Both Strip and downtown workers kept their health and pension plans, and we got workload language to protect housekeepers as well," said John Wilhelm, president of the Culinary's parent union and one of the local's two lead negotiators. 

The Tuesday votes to OK the deals, held in two shifts at the Stardust to accommodate union workers' schedules, were seen as a foregone conclusion by Culinary Workers Local 226 and Bartender's Local 165 officials, who scheduled the votes only one day after the last handful of downtown operators OK'd new deals. 

Workers at MGM Mirage, Mandalay Resort Group, Park Place Entertainment, Harrah's Entertainment and the Tropicana OK'd their deals June 6. 

That margin was 2,003-36, or 98.3 percent approval of contracts that will cost the five companies an estimated $650 million in additional labor costs over five years. 

"These are the best contracts, the largest contracts in the history of the union," Wilhelm said. "On the Strip and downtown, our members should be pleased." 

The Strip deals will cost employers an extra $3.23 1/2 per hour worked, while the downtown contracts will cost about 30 percent less, casino lawyers said. 

Wilhelm paid particular credit to downtown operators who negotiated new deals despite financial difficulties. 

"The downtown operators faced enormous challenges and they stepped up to the plate," he said. 

Wilhelm conceded that the downtown operators took a risk by agreeing to the increased labor costs. 

"They've bet on the future," Wilhelm acknowledged. "Today's business climate downtown won't support this contract." 

He said he hoped downtown properties can devise innovative marketing strategies to capture customers who now gamble, eat and sleep on the Strip, citing the success of Boyd Gaming Corp.'s two union downtown casinos, Main Street Station and the Fremont. 

Those properties and a Boyd-owned charter airline help to keep those properties and the nonunion California full of Hawaiian tourists. 

The remaining deals voted on Tuesday have already been unanimously approved by union negotiating committees, Culinary Political Director Glen Arnodo said, explaining why union officials didn't try to drive a big turnout for Tuesday's vote. 

Arnodo said the union emphasized turnout for the Strip contract votes as a way to marshal support for downtown negotiations. 

"We expect the contracts to be approved, so our focus will remain on the Golden Gate strike," Arnodo said. 

As the Golden Gate strike enters its third day, both sides' positions leave no apparent room for a compromise and an end to the strike. 

Golden Gate owner Marc Brandenburg says he can't afford the union health care plan and won't accept the same terms already agreed to by other struggling downtown properties. 

Union officials say Golden Gate workers refuse to leave the union health plan. 

"We've offered them our plan," said Brandenburg, who said union officials have yet to seriously negotiate with him despite meetings on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. 

Brandenburg said no new meetings have been scheduled, but called on the union officials to call off the strike and return to the bargaining table. 

Union officials, on the other hand, have stopped trying to conceal their contempt for Brandenburg, who, both sides agree, has failed to honor terms of the expired union contract when he didn't give Golden Gate workers a promised 40-cent raise in December. 

Brandenburg said signing the last contract in 1997 was a mistake, one he vows not to make again, calling the back-loaded downtown deals that allow struggling casinos to postpone some contract costs until the end of the deals "ticking time bombs." 

Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor criticized Brandenburg's lack of loyalty to his workers, Wilhelm said the Golden Gate has a history of broken promises, and Arnodo called Brandenburg a liar. 

"How can you deal with someone so obviously untrustworthy?" Arnodo asked. 

Pickets circled in front of the Golden Gate's Fremont Street and Main Street entrances Tuesday, doing what they could to dissuade passers-by from entering the property. 

The 106-room property was built in 1906, and is the smallest union casino in Las Vegas with only 9,000 square feet of casino space. 

The Golden Gate's doors are just steps from the union picket lines, a big advantage for the union, Arnodo said. 

"The closer to the doors, the better," Arnodo explained. 

Stardust baker Linda Graves, a six-year Culinary member, walked the Golden Gate picket line for a two-hour stretch Tuesday afternoon. 

"I'm strong for the union and wanted to support my brothers and sisters," Graves said as she carried her "On Strike" sign. 

Union officials said only two union members crossed the picket line and reported to work; Brandenburg said he didn't know how many union members were working. 

The property's Bay City Diner will remain closed until Thursday morning, when Brandenburg plans to reopen it with newly hired replacement workers. 

Golden Gate busboy Todd O'Neill said he was nervous about walking off the job after only six months at the Golden Gate. 

"Brandenburg wants to put us on his medical plan," O'Neill said. "Health care's important to me, so that's why I'm on the picket line in the afternoon heat." 

Arnodo had a different take on Brandenburg's offer to cover union workers with the property health plan. 

"With the distrust the members have for him already, why would they trust him to protect their health care?" Arnodo said. 

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(c) 2002, Las Vegas Review-Journal. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. MGG, MBG, PPE, HET, BYD,