Part I

The Nevada union leader with the highest profile these days doesn’t represent the largest labor organization, and it’s not even close.

That alone tells you something about Tommy White.

Geoconda Arguello-Kline heads Culinary Local 226 and its nearly 60,000 members. Clark County Education Association President Vikki Courtney represents many thousands of local public school teachers.

White, meanwhile, is the secretary-treasurer/business manager of Laborers Local 872 with its approximately 2,500 members. But from the look of all the media the pugnacious White and his increasingly politically active labor outfit receive, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was much larger.

White not only courts the spotlight, but he also makes use of it. He set himself and Local 872 apart a few years ago by publicly challenging the behemoth Culinary Union during the planning of the new Las Vegas City Hall.

White seemed to hit his stride during the relentless lobbying last year that led to a special session of the Legislature and the approval of $750 million in hotel room-tax dollars to support a new football stadium home for the Oakland Raiders franchise. He saw to it that Local 872 provided the burliest cheerleaders in Carson City. His crew even parked an 18-wheeler awash in the team’s colors and logo outside the state Capitol and threw a barbecue for lawmakers, lobbyists and other fans of the $1.9 billion deal.

Often giving press interviews in an outfit that made him look like a cross between a Raiders assistant coach and a cast member from “The Sopranos,” White continues to stress the good-paying jobs the stadium construction will create for his recession-strapped membership. And while some suspected him of holding hands with nonunion casino tycoon and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, it didn’t appear to bother him in the least. As he tells it, he goes where the jobs are.

“With the stadium, for us it was about putting people back to work,” White says. “We came out stronger for the stadium than any union in Las Vegas. I had a lot of people out of work, I had a lot of people lose houses. We pushed hard for the stadium because it was work. I guess that really put the laborers out from flying under the radar to directly in the radar.”

The success at the Legislature led to White’s appointment to the board of directors of the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, the nine-member group that oversees and signs off on the construction project. He’s an active member with plenty of construction experience and the only representative of organized labor. That higher profile is good for Local 872, he says.

It’s also good for Tommy White as he presses a political agenda that sometimes sets him at odds with other unions that almost exclusively support Democratic candidates. Local 872’s Facebook page combines Raiders stadium boosting with video endorsements from a range of elected officials. On the Internet there’s also a lively political pep talk to laborers rank-and-file members from scandalized former casino mogul and ex-Republican National Committee finance chairman Steve Wynn.

“We’ve always been politically active,” White says. “We just stayed low-key, you know? We’ve always come into campaigns, always helped out.”

But during the battle over the status of the prevailing wage and other issues at the 2015 Legislature, as White recounts it, he saw none of his organized labor compatriots even bothering to make organized labor’s case to Republicans. Once he approached them, White says he learned they hadn’t been asked their opinion on anything from a union leader in years.

“When they started telling me I was the first union leader who’d ever stepped into their office, I said to myself, ‘We’re doing something wrong here,’” White recalls, admitting he adheres to the political bromide that, “Not every Democrat is your friend, and not every Republican is your enemy.”

Local 872 obviously considers firebrand conservative Republican Michele Fiore a friend.

When the former assemblywoman ran unsuccessfully for Congress in District 3 in 2016, she had the union’s endorsement. When she was elected to the Las Vegas City Council last year, she named Local 872 recording secretary Louis DiSalvio to the Planning Commission.

When staunchly pro-union Democrat state Senator Richard “Tick” Segerblom vocally opposed the stadium plan, White took it personally. When Segerblom ran for Clark County Commission District E seat earlier this year, he was opposed by Local 872 vice president Marco Hernandez. With three dozen laborers knocking on hundreds of doors, Hernandez threw a scare into the heavily favored Segerblom, who was quick to praise his opponent in June after squeaking by thanks to ground support from Culinary 226. After a recount, Segerblom was declared the victor by 183 votes.

“We don’t have Culinary’s numbers, but if I put 50 of my best people out there we can turn a race and move a race in a different direction,” he says.

White’s also been accused by some Local 872 members of practicing a particularly vindictive brand of politics inside the local union he’s run since 2003. Complaints about everything from the union’s elections to his six-figure salary have drawn investigations by the Department of Labor’s elections investigators. One federal lawsuit involving accusations of election improprieties and retaliation inside the local is currently being litigated.

With a higher profile has come increased scrutiny of Local 872 and the way tough Tommy White conducts its business.

Disclosure: The Culinary Union, Local 872, Tick Segerblom and Wynn have donated to The Nevada Independent. You can see a full list of donors here.

John L. Smith is a longtime Nevada columnist and author. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.