Ironworkers want stronger union action - By Alexandra Berzon, Las Vegas Sun
The deaths of construction workers on the Strip are widening a rift in an ironworkers union local over workplace safety.
Members of Ironworkers Union Local 433 and friends and relatives of some accident victims say the union leadership isn’t fighting hard enough to ensure safety at Strip building sites. Of the nine construction worker deaths on the Strip in the past 16 months, three were members of the union.
Workers and family members also say they are disturbed by remarks in Monday’s Las Vegas Sun by Chuck Lenhart, business agent and leader of the local. Lenhart said he believed contractors were doing all they could to create safe workplaces and that the workers’ own mistakes caused their deaths.