Cosmopolitan’s new owner, Culinary signal strife is over

By Andrea Domanick

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015 | 3 p.m.

It was perhaps a bit early for champagne, but representatives from the Cosmopolitan and Culinary Union Local 226 raised a toast Wednesday morning in hopes of putting their contentious past behind them under the resort’s new owners Blackstone Group.

The gathering beneath the Cosmopolitan’s Chandelier Bar included new Cosmopolitan President and CEO William McBeath, Unite Here President D. Taylor, Blackstone Global Head of Real Estate Jonathan Gray, Rep. Dina Titus and Sen. Dean Heller, who arrived to celebrate the resort’s sale to Blackstone Group in December and express renewed optimism about labor negotiations with workers.

“This is a celebration of a partnership welcoming Blackstone to the community and to the state and of the security of employees,” said McBeath, who was appointed to replace CEO John Unwin in December. “This will introduce, I believe, even greater investment opportunities across the spectrum in Nevada.”

The Cosmopolitan has a fractured relationship with the Culinary Union, which represents around 55,00 casino workers in Las Vegas and Reno. It’s one of the few Strip resorts without a union contract and endured multiple demonstrations last year amid soured contract negotiations with former owners Deutsche Bank, including a mass arrest of nearly 100 union protesters in March.

Though new negotiations have yet to commence, local leaders appeared eager to wipe the slate clean and start anew. Labor representatives spoke with cautious optimism about the resort’s new leadership, citing Blackstone’s positive track record with hospitality workers at its other properties and longstanding partnership with Culinary national affiliate Unite Here.

In December, the Cosmopolitan announced that its workers would retain their employment and benefits through the sale to Blackstone, a first for a casino not covered by collective bargaining in Las Vegas.

“The employees were so happy that they did not have to reapply for their jobs. We are very excited to start a new relationship and be able to negotiate our contract with the Blackstone Group,” said Michelle DiManso, a union committee leader and cashier at the Cosmopolitan’s Wicked Spoon buffet. “We are looking forward to having the same standard of living as the rest of the Strip so that we can provide for our families.”

Titus, whose congressional district includes the Cosmopolitan and many of its employees, called Blackstone a “good corporate citizen” and praised its positive relationship with organized labor.

Improving relations with workers is one of a number of steps Blackstone says it will take in the months ahead to help turn around the troubled property, which has failed to make a profit since it opened in late 2010. Gray spoke to positive worker relations as a means of creating value and securing the future of the property. He said the company plans to invest several hundred million dollars in improvements that include revamping the casino floor, adding and upgrading restaurants, building out unfinished rooms and adding new ones.

“We are very excited to have the Culinary workers as our partner in this effort,” he said. “We have every expectation we will reach a mutually satisfactory agreement with the Culinary workers, and we’re very pleased with all the union representatives who are here with us today.”

Gray also said the company plans to expand the company’s overall presence in Nevada through real estate investments like the Howard Hughes Center and a number of warehouse purchases in Reno, and hopes to invest more capital to grow the company’s workforce across the state. Blackstone, which is the largest hotel owner in the U.S., currently employs about 8,500 employees in Nevada.​

Follow Andrea Domanick on Twitter at @AndreaDomanick and fan her on Facebook at Facebook.com/AndreaDomanick.