By: Las Vegas Now Staff
Less than 24 hours after it started, a safety picket at two major Las Vegas Strip construction projects is over and construction work on the projects will resume Wednesday morning.
Perini Building company management and union leaders met this afternoon to address safety concerns at the two construction sites.
Union workers on MGM Mirage Inc.'s multibillion dollar CityCenter project struck late Monday after talks broke down between the Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council, casino giant MGM Mirage and project general contractor Perini Building Co. Construction workers also walked off of the Cosmopolitan Resort project, another Perini run project.
The strike follows the deaths of six men on the CityCenter project, the latest death occurred Saturday when 39-year-old Dustin Tarter, a crane worker, was killed. Two workers have died on the Cosmopolitan project.
In a 11 a.m. news conference, Steve Ross with the Southern Nevada Building & Construction Trades Council said every property on the Las Vegas Strip has a safety issue.
“This is the sixth death since the start of the construction of the CityCenter project and this is unacceptable,” said Ross.
He also said he had just been on the phone with Perini management and both sides would sit down and talk later in the afternoon to work out issues.
The council is throwing down the gauntlet. It has made suggestions to Perini Building Company and MGM-Mirage on ways to improve safety concerns at the job site.
They're demanding an immediate work site safety assessment, an on-site OSHA training course, both administered by the Center for Construction Research and Training, and full job site access to be granted to union officials and safety directors.
“Immediately is the time we're allowing Perini and MGM-Mirage to work with us in regards to these requests, meaning today,” said Ross.
“We have the most dangerous work on the site — no ifs, ands or buts. Something needs to be done,” said an ironworker who didn't want his name given.
He will strike to save lives, “We're all behind this. Whatever has to be done to stop the men dying continuously. One man per month is what we have going right now. That's not okay.”
“We want our men and women in this industry to go to work in the morning and go home at night,” Ross said.
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