Francisco Rufino Parra interview, December 6, 2018: transcript

i AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANCISCO RUFINO-PARRA An Oral History Conducted by Barbara Tabach Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ii ©Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2018 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV – University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Manager: Barbara Tabach Transcribers: Kristin Hicks, Maribel Estrada Calderón, Nathalie Martinez, Rodrigo Vazquez, Elsa Lopez Editors and Project Assistants: Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez, Maribel Estrada Calderón, Monserrath Hernández, Elsa Lopez, Nathalie Martinez, Marcela Rodriquez-Campo, Rodrigo Vazquez iii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of a National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Grant. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank University of Nevada Las Vegas for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews with permission of the narrator. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada. Claytee D. White Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas iv PREFACE Francisco Rufino Parra is a native of Nayarit, a small state in western Mexico, and the youngest of seven siblings. He was raised there by his widowed father who made ends meet by selling churros and other items. In 1989, his father received permission to immigrate to the United States with his children who were under the age of 18. Francisco vividly remembers being about twelve years old when the family settled in with an uncle who lived in Los Angeles. He attended school, learned English, and listened to his father about the importance of being a good worker. His father became a field worker in Bakersfield. He attended school in East LA and graduated from high school in San Bernardino in 1994. His first visit to Las Vegas came on a hot day after graduation to visit a sister who lived here. He never left. Instead, he quickly found work and, as he details in this oral history, he worked his way up through the ladder of lower paying jobs, always prepared for the next better paying opportunity. In 2000, it was the impulsive decision to apply for work at the recently opened Paris hotel/casino that was career changing. He became a union shop steward in 2002 and has been a successful employee at several of the Paris restaurants. He is also a proud father and enthusiastic soccer coach. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Francisco Rufino-Parra December 6, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Barbara Tabach Preface…………………………………………………………………………………………..iv Provides family background, born 1976 in Nayarit, Mexico, the youngest of seven children. Lived there until 1989 when his father received permission to immigrate to the United States; father took him and eligible siblings to Los Angeles; their mother was deceased. They lived with an uncle and he enrolled in public schools. Talks about a visit to Las Vegas in 1994 to see an older sister and then settling here. Recalls meeting with Vice President Al Gore when in high school; work lessons of his father; and what Las Vegas look like to him the first time he saw the city. Describes his first jobs and pay rates: a recycling company; Angelica Laundry Company; and a door building company………………………………………………………………….1 – 6 Tells about an impulse to apply for a position at the recently opened Paris hotel in 2000; first union job he had; satisfaction of having benefits; but not satisfied with dishwasher position, which he held until 2004; obtains forklift license and opportunity for better jobs at Paris, such as garde manger, and keeps moving up into new positions. Eventually becomes shop steward for the Culinary Union, and happily applies and gets cook position at Le Creperie at $17/hour, and then Les Provencal; today is fry cook at Paris…………………………………………...…..7 – 13 Talks about Culinary Union support of Barak Obama in 2008 and his personal effort on that campaign knocking doors. Explains his role as Shop Steward for the Culinary Union #226; his role in the grievance process; training he receives; coming close to a strike in 2018 and preparing his backup plan……………………………………………………………………………..14 – 16 Talks about raising his three children in Las Vegas; neighborhoods on eastside and in North Las Vegas; bilingual household; impact of being a cook on him and his family eating habits. Describes the diversity of Spanish in the workplace; how he has learned many languages working in the hotel. Visits to his birthplace; older brother became a police officer in Sinaloa and was killed in the line of duty in 2011……………………………………………………….17 – 21 Proudly tells of becoming an American citizen and voting for Obama; expresses his pride of membership in the Culinary Union; details of the 2000 contract fight; impact the union has on workers……………………………………………………………………………………...21 – 25 vi 1 Today is December 6, 2018. This is Barbara Tabach for the Latinx Voices, a Southern Nevada project with UNLV. We are sitting today at the Culinary Union facilities and taking a look at workers in Las Vegas and today I'm talking with Francisco. The first thing, say your complete name and spell it for us, please. My name is Francisco Rufino Parra. It's F-R-A-N-C-I-S-C-O. Rufino, R-U-F-I-N-O. Parra, P-A-R-R-A. Thank you so much. You mentioned to me before we started recording that you've been here since 1994? Yes, ma'am. Talk about where you grew up. Then we're going to try to get you to Las Vegas and '94, okay? I was born in Nayarit, Mexico in 1976, in a place called Mexpan; that was forty-two years ago. I lived with my dad and my mom...My mom passed away when I was two years old. I worked with my dad, together, selling churros and stuff in Mexico. We were always working hard, trying to get our lives together. Was that just you and your father, or did you have siblings? It was me, my dad, and my sisters. My whole family altogether is seven of us. It's a pretty huge family. It's five girls and two boys. My brother was the oldest one in the family and me was the youngest one in the family, so the girls were in the middle. There was all of us at a certain point. My brother decided to join the military in Mexico when he turned eighteen. So he went to the military and he started his life in the military, in the government for a long time. When my brother left, we were selling churros and stuff trying to come up in life and to make money to eat and stuff. 2 In 1989, my dad got a letter from the U.S. Embassy; that was an application he put in to come to the United States. It was not amnesty because at that time there was not amnesty. That was an application that he got accepted, so all of us, the ones that could, because anybody over eighteen years old did not qualify to come to the United States, and so only three sisters and myself were able to be included in that application; my sister Maria De Rosario, my sister Maria Del Carmen, and there was my sister Cecelia, and myself of course. We came to Los Angeles in '89. We came and lived with my uncle. I studied in Los Angeles, from there on. I went to Griffith Junior High in East L.A. I graduated from Griffith Junior High in 1990. I graduated from there and I went to Garfield High School for a year. My uncle decided to buy a house back in San Bernardino, so I was following him all the time. My dad was working in the fields back in Bakersfield, picking fruit and stuff, so I was over living with my uncle. We moved to Fontana, California, in San Bernardino, and I went to A.B. Miller High School from '91 all the way to '94. I graduated from A.B. Miller High School in '94. As soon as I graduated—this is very funny—I decided to come and visit my sister because my sister was already here, one of my sisters. Here in Las Vegas? Yes, came to Vegas. She came to Vegas in '90; something like that. She came with her boyfriend, Martín, and they came to Vegas and they were living here. So in '94, my sister asked me, "Do you want to come and visit us?" I said, "Yes, yes, I'll go visit you." My dad was always sending me money, putting me money on account. I never was short of money because of my dad, and my sister, Maria Del Rosario. She was always giving me money because my dad and her were always living together in California. 3 I bought my ticket to come to Las Vegas in '94 when I graduated. I came to visit her for a week. I was thinking about going back to San Bernardino. Guess what? I never did. That was it, huh? Yes. That week has been a long time, twenty-four years. In San Bernardino, before we get you all the way here, did you work outside of the home while you were going to school? What was it like to grow up there? While I was going in school, I was in a program, a summer program. It was a program that we were able to work during the summer; I was able to work cleaning schools and stuff. It was a very good program. One of those years I got picked to meet Vice President Al Gore. We were all together in a room. It was a bunch of people like me working in the program that were able to meet the vice president at that time. I don't remember exactly what year it was, but I remember it was Al Gore. We talked to him for two hours. After that I kept working—this is the following year—in school, so I was able to know the roles of being on a time clock all the time. My dad always taught me that if you have a job, keep it and be there on time and never call out unless you really, really need it. That's always been my role, things that my dad taught me. I worked for a couple of years, two years during the summer. After that I decided to come and visit my sister. Mainly it was school in San Bernardino. When you come to Las Vegas—it sounds like you had not visited here before, or had you? No, it was my first time. What did the city look like to you? What did you think? Oh my. In '94, it was a pretty small town. I was able to cross the city in thirty minutes, from one side to another. It was very hot. I did not want to stay here because I came during the summer. 4 My sister had a car. Her car did not have A/C…no air-conditioning. It was very hot—a 110 degrees. It was very hot. I decided, I'm going to try to look for a job. So I applied to work for the recycling company, the trash company, and I went and put my application in. I kept calling the supervisor for a week, more than a week, calling him every day to see if he had a job for me. One day I think I fed him up and he said, "You know what? You're very persistent. Why don't you just come over here and see what's going on?" I went up there and he's like, "We're going to be picking cardboard. Throw the cardboard here." I said, "Okay." I started working with them. In two weeks' time—it was less than two weeks—in four days' time he picked me to be one of the supervisor's assistants because I knew English. I knew how to speak English. There was a lot of Hispanic people working in that section at the time. But I did not want to stay in the recycling company. I decided while I was working there—I was on graveyard shift all the time. So I said, "I do not want to stay here." I was getting minimum wage, five something at the time. I don't remember exactly what was minimum wage. I was getting minimum wage with them. [Note: 1994 minimum wage was $4.25] I applied in the laundry company, Angelica's laundry company, and they called me. My brother-in-law was working there and my sister was working there, so they kind of helped me to get in there. I worked for the laundry company for two years. I did not like the sweat shops in there; it was very hot. It was a graveyard shift, too. In San Bernardino, I took a carpenter's class and I like carpentry. My dad was a carpenter and he would love to do wood projects and stuff. So I said, "I do not want to be here. This is too hot." One day I went to a door company and I talked to this guy. He is from Texas. His name is 5 Jerry. He says, "Do you want to work for us?" I said, "Yes." "Do you know carpentry?" I said, "Yes." "Do you know how to work with a table saw? Do you know how to work with a miter saw? Do you know how to work...?" And I told him, "Yes," and I showed him all the stuff that I did when I was in school. One of the guys that was working with me all the time, he went with me. I was able to get me a job and get him a job building doors, installing doors at the time. Building homes at that time was very good; it was booming. I worked with this guy putting base board around new homes and I worked with him for like three months. There were two guys that retired out of the shop. And I said, "I do not want to work piece by piece." I said, "I know I can make a lot of money." I was making a lot of money working piece by piece. I said, "I do not want to do this. I want a time to start and I want a time to leave." I said, "I know I can do piece by piece, but I don't want to do this." I went and talked to the same guy. I said, "You know what? I want to join the shop." He says, "Really? I have two positions opening. If you want, you've just got to talk to the guy you're working with so he just doesn't think you just left the job and came here." I said, "Okay, I'll talk to him." The guy that was with me, he was always with me; he was behind me, following me all the time. He says, "Yes, I want to do that too." Jerry said, "I have two positions open. I'll give you guys the openings if you guys want and you guys will be getting ten dollars an hour," I believe it was. I said, "Man, from minimum wage to piece by piece to a ten-dollar-an-hour job that's pretty good." So I said, "Yes, okay." Always when I moved from one job to another, it was trying to be more money for it, more money for it. I worked for that company...I think I started with them in 1996, I believe, and I worked 6 with them—I was building doors. We were building doors for homes. I think we were doing eighteen, twenty homes a day, just myself, and the guy that was with me, he was doing about the same amount per day. There was a boom then, yes, I remember that. It was a very, very busy trend. We were working six days a week. Was it a union job? No, this was not a union job at the time. While I was working with them, I started looking for something else. I said, "I don't want to stay here." I kept working for him. He liked me, the way I worked and because I never called out. I always was there on time and I was practically learning fast and teaching everybody how to do—by 2000, I was already operating the machine to build the doors. I was driving. I had my license by the time. I would do deliveries for him. I would do special projects. That company—I think it is still in existence—called Avanti Doors—they would do custom homes for people that would build their own homes. He would have me go out there and measure to build the doors for the houses. He said at one time, "Francisco, I lost a superintendent. Do you want to be a superintendent?" I'm like, "No, it's a job that needs me to be out there. I need to be driving and I need to be doing this." He said, "I need somebody." I said, "I'll help you a day or two out of the week if you want." He says, "Yes, okay, I'll send you when I need you out there." I'm like, "Okay." So I kept working in the shop and I was doing side jobs for him—not side jobs, but it was kind of like, "You live here today and you're going to be doing this today." I was doing that for him, but it was not enough for me. From '96 to 2000, I've only gotten a two-dollar raise at the time. Two dollars. I said, No. My daughter was born in 2000, so I was paying insurance and I was paying eighty dollars a week 7 for insurance. Not enough with that. I needed to pay 20 percent of whatever the bill was for the hospital. That was in early 2000s. Let me go back a little bit. In '99, they built Paris hotel. One of my buddies—because I was also a referee. I was referring games on the weekends. What kind of games? Soccer games. I was doing referee games. I was always active in something. I was never home. This guy—I was refereeing games all the time—he says, "Oh, I'm going to stop doing this because I'm getting a job that I'm not going to be able to do this." He never told me what it was. So I said, "Okay," and I stopped doing games. That money that I was getting for refereeing games was not coming into my pocket anymore because I was doing games with him. I said, "I have to do something else. I need more money." I drove by, in 2000, of the property of Paris. I just stopped, suddenly stopped and turned into the parking lot where they were hiring people and I put an application in for a dishwasher. I'm like, "I don't want to do this job anymore. I need to do something else. I need more money." So I put my application in. I went into a bar. I drank a beer or two. When I got home, my sister says, "You got a call." I'm like, "Really? From where?" She says, "You got a call from Paris hotel. They want to talk to you. This guy named Juan wants to talk to you." I'm like, "Really? Okay." The next day I did not go into work at the door shop until a later time. It was around eight o'clock in the morning when I received a call from him again. I answered the phone and he says, "Francisco, this is Juan." I said, "Hey, how you doing, man?" It was my friend. He goes, "Francisco, this is Juan. What are you doing right now?" I said, "I'm about to go to work." He's like, "Did you put an application in?" I'm like, "Yes, I put an application in." "Did you put an 8 application in at Paris for a dishwasher?" I'm like, "Yes. How do you know?" He says, "I'm the assistant executive in this hotel. Francisco, I want to talk to you. I want to get an interview with you. I want you to come tomorrow at nine o'clock for an interview. Somebody from human resources will call you in a minute. Don't leave your house because somebody is going to call you to confirm that you're going to come." So I said, "Yes, okay." I did not leave. I called my boss and said, "Hey, I have to stay for a little longer at home." Jerry says, "Okay, do whatever you have to do and then show up to work when you can." I stayed and I received a call from the hiring center. She says, "Hi, I want to talk to Francisco Rufino. Is that you?" I said, "Yes, this is me." "Did you put an application in for a dishwasher at Paris?" I'm like, "Yes.” “Well, the person that is doing interviews wants to talk to you. When can you come? Is tomorrow okay, nine o'clock?" I'm like, "Yes, yes, that's fine. I'll be there." So I had my appointment. I went to work and I told my boss, "Hey, I need the day off tomorrow." He's like, "There's a lot of work. I'll give you the day off if you come to work on Sunday to finish all this little stuff I have to do." I'm like, "Yes, I'll take it." My work of hours at the door shop was seven to three and I took the day off. When I went inside, my friend is the one that interviewed me. We talked about the job and stuff. He told me what I was going to be doing. By that time, I was already looking into cooking. I loved to cook, all the time. He gave me a job, graveyard. I'm like, ugh, graveyard job again. I'm like, okay, I'll keep both. He gave me a job from five to one in the morning. I kept both of the jobs for a while. You kept doing the door job and starting the new job? Yes. I kept doing both of them. But then I saw that I was getting fourteen dollars an hour at Paris 9 as a dishwasher, but I was not paying insurance and I was getting insurance. I'm like, there's no money coming out of my check. I kind of was looking into what was going on. I didn't know it was part of Culinary. I investigated and I knew there was a fee coming out of my check. I'm paying twenty, thirty-two bucks; something like that at the time. I don't remember how much it was, but I didn't care. I didn't care. I said, "I'm getting more," because it felt that way. I said, "I'm only paying this much, but..." When my daughter was born, I had an insurance bill that I needed to pay and I paid off the bill. My wife at the time fell in the hospital and I already had culinary insurance. When she fell in the hospital, I only had to pay seventy-five dollars and nothing else came out of my pocket. When I got the bill, it was twelve thousand for the bill. I was good in math. If I had paid with my other insurance, I at least had to pay three thousand dollars out of my pocket from this bill; it's probably more than that. So I said, "No, something is going on." I kept looking and I kept looking and I found out that was a part of the contract, culinary contract. I got tired of the door job and I was working too much and I said, I'm just going to leave this job, and I quit from the door job. My boss asked me, "Why are you leaving?" And I showed him why. I said, "Because over there I get fourteen dollars an hour and I don't pay insurance." What were you getting paid an hour at the door place? It was twelve fifty an hour, but at that time it was a hundred dollars a week for insurance. Multiply that by four, that's four hundred dollars out of my check a month for insurance that did not pay a hundred percent. I thought, No, this is not good business. I'm just going to leave the door job. And I left. I kept looking for something else. I stayed at the hotel and I said, I do not want to be a dishwasher, and I looked for something else. I had my forklift license and they were hiring runners. The supervisor that I 10 talked to, he's like, "Let me know, why do you think you could do this runner job? Do you realize it's pulling pallets? You realize it's putting food away?" I'm like, "Yes." This would be operating the forklift in the food service area? Not even the forklift. It was a pallet jack. He says, "Do you have the idea of what you have to do?" I'm like, "Yes, you have to first in, first out, right? I worked in a door company. The company we worked for, whatever material was in needed to be out first. I think food is no different." He's like, "I like the way you're thinking. You kind of put both of the jobs together." I said, "Listen, if you ever want me to drive one of the forklifts, I have my forklift license." So he looked at it and he's like, "Oh, okay, so you can drive the electronic pallet jack." I'm like, "I can do that or I could drive a forklift if you want." "Yes, Francisco, you got the job." From fourteen, I went to sixteen dollars an hour. How much time had elapsed? How long did you actually work as a dishwasher? I worked from 2000 all the way to 2004. For four years you did that before this opportunity came up. Yes, it's four years. I only stayed as a dishwasher for two years and I said, "No, I don't want to do this; I don't want to wash dishes." I'm very bad at washing dishes. I said, "No, I have to do something else." I got the job as a runner. They put me in the garde-manger area, so I was doing garde-manger. What's garde-manger? Garde-manger, it's the room of the cold where they make all the salads and stuff, sandwiches and all this stuff. I was bringing all the product in the room from what the chef ordered. I was doing maybe eight pallets a day. I was putting food away. The guy, he's like, "Francisco, I like the way you're doing this." He says, "You never 11 stop." I'm trying my best. He's like, "I want to teach you something else." He kept teaching me salads. I was always together with him because he was teaching me something else. He taught me how to make salads. He taught me how to do this. He taught me how to do that. One time a big banquet came and he needed somewhat like an assistant to watch the people do the work because they were calling people from the Culinary to do work in the banquet time. He says, "Francisco, you know how to do this salad. You stay over there with them and you make sure the plates come out perfect. Make sure they're done the way you know how to do it." So I kept doing that and he got me into the banquet area. As soon as I started doing salads, I said, "I have to do something else, too." One of the bosses, one of the executives looked at me and said, "Francisco, you think you could cut meat?" I'm like, "Yes, why not? How hard is it?" He's like, "Not too hard. Do you want to work banquets?" I'm like, "Yes, yes, I'll do banquets." He said, "But you're going to have to stay a lot of overtime." "I don't care. I'll stay overtime." He kept sending me to banquets and I was doing banquets, cutting meat, and doing cook work at the time and he kept putting me somewhere else, paying me the difference, of course. At that time I decided to join Culinary as a shop steward, so I was doing shop steward things and we were fighting our contract at the time. I was doing negotiations in the union and I already knew about the union by that time. I said, "I'm not letting go. This is something good. It's going to take me somewhere." So I kept doing that and I kept helping the boss in the banquet area. One day they posted a bid for a cook at the Le Creperie. I already knew how to do the job and everything and it was a promotional bid. It was downstairs and I signed it. I said, "I'm just going to sign it and forget it." I told chef, his name was Ismael, I said, "Hey, Chef Ishmael, I 12 signed that bid downstairs." He's like, "Really? You did?" "Yes." "I like you," he says. "I like the way you do the work. You know a lot. It's a promotional bid, Francisco. It has to be down by tomorrow at eleven o'clock. Tomorrow at eleven o'clock I want you to go over there, take it down, at eleven o'clock, no earlier than that. If it's later that's fine. But you have to take it down at eleven o'clock and bring it to me." I'm like, "Okay." The next day I was watching the time because I was always going through there picking pallets and stuff. I was watching the time and it was for me to go to lunch; it was eleven thirty. I pulled the bid down and I took it to Chef Ishmael. And he says, "I have to interview everybody, Francisco. You know that, right?" I'm like, "Yes, I'm just doing whatever you're telling me to do." He says, "I have to interview everybody and see if anybody qualifies more than you to do the job." I said, "Okay." He says, "I already know that you know what to do. I'm only going to talk to you for ten minutes and that's it." So I talked to him and he says, "Let me talk to everybody and then we'll let you know." The next day I was in my lunchtime when his assistant came and he says, "Francisco, I don't want to interrupt your meal, but I want to talk to you." He pulled me over in the corner and he says, "I already talked to everybody and I think you're the one that qualifies for the job." I'm like, "Okay." He says, "So it's yours; it's your job. Now, in three days, on Wednesday, you're going to start at Le Creperie. Make sure you get a cook's vest and stuff and make sure you have everything you need to work at Le Creperie." I'm like, "Okay, thank you." I was happy about it. I was making seventeen dollars an hour. I said, "This is good. This is going somewhere." I took that job and I kept working at Le Creperie, but it was a shift for me from three to eleven and I said, "No, I don't want this; I don't want to work this late." When I was doing the prep for Le Creperie, I was helping the chef in the restaurant doing 13 the prep for the restaurant. He saw that I was doing my job and I was helping him with the prep for the restaurant. I did that for maybe two months. One day one of the guys retired and they posted a bid. It was a classification bid. I signed it. It was the same time, but I was moving to the restaurant. I did not want to do Le Creperie job anymore. Same pay and everything. I said, "I have to get something else." They waited until the time was up for the bid, and he says, "Francisco, as a classification you win the bid, so you're coming to Les Provencal on Monday." I'm like, "Okay, I'll be at Les Provencal." I learned everything from Provencal and from that point on it's always been a cook job. Something that brings me here is that Culinary has always helped me to come out and be better. It's been a long time, but I'm happy for what I'm doing. What are you doing now? I'm a fry cook. A fry cook still at Paris? I'm a fry cook at Paris, yes. I've been in every single restaurant in the hotel. I've been in the coffee shop. I never worked the steakhouse. I never got a chance to work the steakhouse, but I was there for a few times. I was there to help a day or two at the steakhouse. I was at Les Provencal for a long time, until they closed. I eventually moved to a day shift job for lunch at Les Provencal until they closed Provencal. They closed Provencal. Thanks to the contract, they bumped me into the coffee shop, so I was working for the coffee shop. I was a shop steward already by that time. When I was working in the coffee shop, the elections came. The elections came and I was working for the political— 14 Elections of what, the union elections? No, the political elections. Presidential? Yes, presidential elections. They asked me if I wanted to come and participate in the political campaign. They were supporting Obama at the time. This was 2008? It was the first one. That was the first time he got elected. 2008? I worked on the election hard, the most I could because I knew he was going to do something for our country. What did you do? We were over there knocking doors, talking to the people about our political choices—not the people. We were talking to culinary members about our choices in the election and why we were supporting him. We won. We won that election here in Nevada. Did I understand you correctly, you became shop steward early on? Yes. Explain what the role of a shop steward is. The role of the shop steward is: To make sure the contract gets followed correctly; that nobody's rights are violated. To make sure that everybody is on the same page for what our contract is. To make sure that everybody understands that without a contract we wouldn't be here. My job as a shop steward is to make sure that people are protected, as to the best of my knowledge, following the contract and to be able to negotiate the contracts with the companies. When we're out there doing contracts, our leadership is not the one that decides how the contracts go. Us, as the shop stewards, decide whether we want that or not. They just tell us our choices. This could get you to this; this could get you to that; this will get you there. You choose 15 which way you want on a contract. How many shop stewards might there be at Paris? I don't have the exact number right now, but I think it's like forty something in Paris. They come from different departments? They come from different departments, yes. We try to get a shop steward for every twenty members, in the trend. If there's a hundred cooks, you need five shop stewards for the department, and it's every department. It has to be that way because I don't know Jerry's work. I don't know as a cook how hard is their job. I know because of my sisters, because my sisters do work for Culinary at the Mandalay Bay, I know how hard it is because they talk to me about it. When I go out there doing contracts, I think of my sisters, what could happen to them. But me being a cook, I don't know if the server has any problems; only the shop steward that is in the same classification knows what's going on in their role of work. If someone has a grievance, they would talk to you first? How does that process work? If somebody has a disagreement of what's going on, they will come to me. They would ask me, what can I do? At this point I will tell them, do your step one. Step one is the first step to the grievance process and I explain it to them. For me, I would never tell anybody, yes, you're going to win it. I will always say, we'll try to get you the best possible. Because if you say you're going to win and you lose, you're lying. Even though I know they h