Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, speaks to the press during a strike vote at the Thomas & Mack Center Tuesday Sept. 26, 2023. The culinary and bartenders union is currently in negotiations with casino and hotel employers for the contracts of its members and will be able to call a strike, if needed, if the vote passes today.
Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023 | 2 a.m.
The Culinary Union is back at the negotiating table with multiple resort companies this week for the first time since a strike authorization vote that passed with overwhelming support last month made it possible for Nevada’s largest labor coalition to walk out if it doesn’t get a satisfactory contract soon.
“The companies have come prepared to bargain,” Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer and chief negotiator for the union, told members of the media Tuesday afternoon in the middle of a negotiating session with MGM Resorts International. “And I think that that’s our impression. And that’s, I think, the direct result of an overwhelming, raucous show-up at the strike vote last week. And that’s good because, in the end, nobody wants to go on strike.”
But, he said, the possibility of a strike still looms.
Thousands of members of Culinary Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 a week ago voted by a 95% majority to authorize a citywide strike should talks for new five-year contracts with Las Vegas gaming properties stall.
Contracts covering 40,000 union hospitality workers at MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts — the three largest resort companies on the Strip — expired earlier this year, and the union has been in negotiations with them since April. With contracts at other Las Vegas venues covering thousands of other union members slated to expire by the end of the year, the union has said it wouldn’t hesitate to use the threat of strikes as a bargaining tool.
After Tuesday’s talks with MGM Resorts, union negotiators are scheduled to meet today with Caesars and Wynn Resorts on Friday. Whether a strike deadline will be set and when is dependent on this week’s negotiations, said Pappageorge, who declined to get into specifics about the talks.
Culinary — which is demanding better wages and health care, a reduced workload, protections for jobs and new forms of technology and more — is willing to do whatever it takes to secure a good contract and not be “left behind,” as resorts in Las Vegas continue to make record profits in the aftermath ofthe pandemic, Pappageorge said.
“Our goal is to be available whenever, as much as we can, if we can make movement to try to avert a strike,” he emphasized. “But, at this point, we’ve seen very little movement on the company side. And workers have been extremely patient, but they sent a message last Tuesday that enough’s enough.”
He noted his support of labor unions nationwide taking a stand for better contracts, and said that many of the issues Culinary is bringing to the table in in Las Vegas are “universal” — like helping young workers who may be unable to afford increased rents or parents who can’t afford to send their kids to college.
Las Vegas can’t function without hospitality workers, Pappageorge said, and the union just wants its “fair share” — hopefully resolving contract negotiations before the arrival of massive sporting events like Formula One and the Super Bowl.
“So, we’re going to negotiate this week, and then we’ll make our decisions when we sit down with our members,” he said. “And, unfortunately, I believe there’s a good potential for a strike.”
Paul Anthony, a food server at the Bellagio and a member of the union’s negotiating committee, told media members Tuesday that workers wanted to benefit from the major success that resort companies were seeing.
Anthony reiterated the union’s ask for the widespread reinstatement of daily room cleaning at Las Vegas resort hotels, which he said was not only important to protect the jobs of guest-room attendants but also to ensure the quality of a guest’s stay in Las Vegas.
“What I’m hoping for is for the company to come and sit down with us and to bargain in good faith, and to come to an agreement to have the workers and the people of the city be taken care of,” he said. “It’s very simple.”
The resort companies’ last official comments about the ongoing talks were issued in the aftermath of the Sept. 26 strike authorization votes.
“MGM Resorts has a decades-long history of bargaining successfully with the Las Vegas Culinary & Bartenders Unions,” the company said in a statement.
“We continue to have productive meetings with the union and believe both parties are committed to negotiating a contract that is good for everyone.”
“Wynn Las Vegas has historically had a positive and cordial working relationship with labor unions and has always reached satisfactory agreements with each,” the company said in a statement to the Sun.
“Our employees are the heart and soul of Wynn, and we will continue to work with Local 226 and Local 165 to reach an agreement that provides our employees with competitive wages and benefits, in a work environment that matches our high standards.”
