Backstage at the Flamingo after performing his December 2 Christmas show ("I don't care what is politically correct; this is a Christmas show!"), Wayne Newton is still fuming when he recalls how the musicians in Local 369 of the American Federation of Musicians informed him of their walkout ultimatum a week earlier:
"Let me tell you how they did it, the mean spiritedness of it. We rehearsed Wednesday night with the show opening the next night on Thanksgiving. We rehearsed almost six hours Wednesday until about 9 at night. They got paid for that rehearsal. When the rehearsal was over a trumpet player handed my wife a letter from the union that said that if I didn't sign this new agreement—which included a bunch of areas we had never talked about and never agreed to—they were not showing up for the show on Thursday. Now, is that good faith? 'We got him where we want him and now we are going to stick it to him.'"
Newton refused to sign the contract and with that the negotiations with the union that had been ongoing since Newton left the Stardust earlier this year broke down. Some musicians who had been playing with him for years walked out that night and others, in order to keep playing, resigned from Local 369.
Union President Frank Leone says of those who resigned: "Two of the five resigners did so with the greatest reluctance, and probably in the wake of what we believe to be grievous family situations related to health. Unfortunately, if this were not the holiday season, we believe that others might also have held out for the rights of their profession."
Both sides agree that the dispute ostensibly centers over the issue of rehearsals. According to Newton:
"After the years I was at the Stardust we were in negotiations with AFM. I took health and welfare to the maximum; I took their daily pay to the maximum. The thing I asked for after a year of negotiations was that I would not pay for rehearsals after a show or before a show."
Newton's reasoning is that if he must pay extra for these rehearsals then that encourages musicians to make mistakes in the show to require him to hold them. The union, of course, does not see it that way. According to Leone, "It is unheard of in the music business and he knows better. That's ridiculous. He wants to avoid paying for rehearsals. Nobody rehearses for nothing."
In fact, Leone sees the demand as such a clear deal-breaker that he questions if Newton has another motive, too, for making it: "He postures himself as being Mr. Las Vegas and enjoying a particular rung in the hierarchy of celebrity, so what could be better than to squirm out of a contract under a pretext rather than admit he is not making what he used to make?" In short, Newton is nowadays having to watch his expenditures and, according to Leone, is trying to do so at the expense of his musicians: "Why cast the aspersion on the profession that supported you so well instead of admitting you simply cannot maintain what you think you are worth anymore from the hotel? I do not know what he is making or not making, but it doesn't matter. Our scales are fair scales and other people pay them and we see no reason he should not pay them."
Of course, how many other people pay the union is the question. Avenue Q is an example of one of the few newer shows in town that uses union musicians. Others, like Clint Holmes, do not. But often, as is the case with Holmes, for example, those acts are paying more. Holmes is said to pay almost twice union scale. Both Newton and Leone view their dispute in many ways as the consequence of a 1989 labor dispute that both see as marking a crucial change in the relationship of the musician's union to the Strip.
According to Newton: "This change started in 1989. The hotels got fed up with the AFM, and they decided frankly they were going to bust the union." Newton at the time was among the biggest stars on the Strip. In a column written back then, John L. Smith credited Newton's decision to cross the picket line as crucial to the union's defeat. Newton defends his decision: "I went two weeks without work before I crossed the picket lines, and realized that we were coming from a different place." After that strike Newton notes that the hotels began to move more toward using taped music with shows. Of the union, Newton says, "I think they shot themselves in the foot."
Leone notes that another important consequence of the 1989 dispute was the change in the business model of how casinos paid headliners. "The nature of the entertaining business changed. We began to see the demise of the house orchestra and finally the hotels said to the stars, 'We're going to give you one lump sum and if you want a band you hire it.' This was after 1989." Thus rehearsal costs were suddenly coming directly out of Wayne Newton's pocket. And so his attitude toward rehearsal began to change.
(According to Leone: "When Newton was at the Sands he was all too glad to utilize rehearsal time and overtime, because he didn't have to pay for it. It wasn't just him. None of the celebrities did. The hotels paid.")
Both sides say negotiations are continuing though only technically, and not actively. Leone is not ready to say what the union's next move will be, but on December 2 he sent a letter to the members who walked out on Newton, promising: "Our fight is far from over. We will carry on until we achieve satisfaction, one way or another."
As for Newton, his holiday show is set to run through December 23 and he says that he has had no problem finding replacement musicians. "There were people standing in line to fill those chairs." Asked if he has noticed a difference in caliber between the union players and his current band, Newton replies, "None."