? 2006 Paul Everett Hayes
ABSTRACT
This thesis is a case study of the comprehensive contract campaign that the
Culinary Union, HERE Local 226 utilized in its 2002 round of negotiations with
casino operators in Las Vegas. The focus of this study is on how the comprehensive
contract campaign strategy used by the Culinary Union increased the local?s
bargaining power in the negotiations. This case study links the success of the 2002
comprehensive contract campaign to the local?s prior practices, long-term strategies,
as well as its organizational structure and culture. This case study also examines how
the political, social, and economic context of Las Vegas?s casino industry influenced
the Culinary Union?s comprehensive contract campaign. It describes the interactive
relationship between these external contextual factors, the local?s strategic choices,
and industrial relations outcomes in Las Vegas?s casino industry. This case study
describes how the Culinary Union, by using the organizing model of contract
administration, created an organizational culture and structure that lead to increases in
the quality and quantity of rank-and-file participation in the union, and how this
benefited the union in its 2002 comprehensive contract campaign. In addition to citing
specific examples from the 2002 contract campaign itself, this case study uses the
industrial relations literature relating to union commitment and participation, in order
to support this argument