Former labor leader Arnold dies at 68
Jim Arnold, the son of a longtime Las Vegas labor leader who rose through the ranks to oversee the city's largest union for parts of three decades, died Wednesday.
Arnold, 68, served as secretary-treasurer of Culinary Local 226 between 1987 and 2002, heading the organization through its unprecedented growth that marked the Strip's building boom.
When Arnold took over the union leadership, the Culinary had 23,000 members. Today the union represents 60,000 hotel and restaurant workers on the Strip and downtown.
During his tenure, the Culinary faced several challenges, including a strike at the Horseshoe and organizing the MGM Grand after the resort's opening in 1993.
Arnold also headed the union during the six-and-a-half year strike at the New Frontier, when 550 workers remained off the job at the Strip hotel-casino between September 1991 and February 1998, the longest labor dispute in U.S. history.
Arnold was arrested in an act of civil disobedience when the strike began.
The New Frontier strike ended when the property's owners, the Elardi family, sold the hotel-casino to Phil Ruffin for $165 million in 1998.
At the time, Arnold proclaimed the moment as the "biggest victory organized labor has seen in the last 25 years. It's a victory everybody in the country can share a piece of."
In 1987, Arnold was working as representative for the now-defunct State Industrial Insurance System when he decided to run for the open secretary-treasurer position. Arnold had been business agent for Culinary for eight years and also worked as a hotel bellman and valet.
His father, James Arnold, was former head of the Southern Nevada Central Labor Council and the Building and Construction Trades Council.
A funeral will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at the King David Chapel behind Palm Mortuary at 2697 E. Eldorado Lane off of Eastern Avenue.
Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871.
Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
