The Culinary Workers Union local 226 holds a strike vote today 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.
Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 is armed with another tool in its negotiations with Las Vegas resorts over new contracts for the hospitality workers who are the backbone of the city: authorization for the union to strike for new contracts.
Tens of thousands of union members flooded the Thomas & Mack Center on Tuesday for the strike vote, overwhelmingly approving the last-resort measure by a 95% vote, Culinary officials said.
The union, which represents about 53,000 workers in Las Vegas, let it be known that with the vote to authorize a strike, it’s time for resorts up and down the Strip and in downtown Las Vegas to enhance the benefits and working conditions for those porters, cooks, bartenders, food servers and others who are key cogs in the tourism economy.
Negotiators with the Culinary local and the Bartenders Union will return to the bargaining table next week with the three largest gaming employers in Las Vegas — MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts — said Ted Pappageorge, Culinary’s secretary-treasurer. It’s up to them to step up and do the right thing and avoid a work stoppage, he stressed.
Union officials have not set a strike deadline.
“If these gaming companies don’t come to an agreement, the workers have spoken and we will be ready to do whatever it takes — up to and including a strike,” he said in a statement after Tuesday’s vote was tallied. “Workers brought every single one of these companies through the pandemic and into a great recovery, and workers deserve a fair share. Companies are doing extremely well and we are demanding that workers aren’t left behind.”
MGM Resorts, in a statement late Tuesday after the vote authorization, said, “We continue to have productive meetings with the union and believe both parties are committed to negotiating a contract that is good for everyone.”
It added: “MGM Resorts has a decades-long history of bargaining successfully with the Las Vegas Culinary & Bartenders Unions.”
Wynn Resorts also responded to the strike authorization.
“Wynn Las Vegas has historically had a positive and cordial working relationship with labor unions and has always reached satisfactory agreements with each,” it stated. “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.”
The last time the union went on strike was in 1991, when 550 workers stayed on the picket line around the clock for 6 years, 4 months and 10 days at the Frontier, the union said. Not one worker crossed the line, and all were brought back to their jobs and provided back pay, it said.
The union in previous strikes has literally shut down Las Vegas.
In 1970, the Culinary and Bartenders unions staged a three-day work stoppage against 16 properties, forcing casinos to go dark for the first time since they opened, the union said.
They said airlines reported small amounts of passengers, taxicabs weren’t in service and smaller Las Vegas hotels were vacant. The stoppage, Culinary officials said, resulted in an estimated $600,000 daily loss in profits for each of the properties. That’s the equivalent of more than $4 million today.
The union also authorized a vote in 2018, but workers never walked off the job. Instead, the sides agreed on a new five-year deal.
“I voted yes to authorize a strike because I am ready to do whatever it takes — including going on strike to win what we deserve,” Angelica Romero, a houseperson at the Encore and longtime member of the union, said in a statement.
Union seeks largest pay increase in its history
After five months of negotiations and a lack of any “substantial progress,” Pappageorge said the negotiating committee voted to end extensions to existing contracts with Las Vegas properties owned by MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resort. Those contracts officially expired Sept. 15.
That means about 40,000 workers at 19 venues are working under an expired contract, the union said. Those properties are:
- MGM Resorts International casinos: Aria, Bellagio, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, New York-New York and Park MGM.
- Caesars Entertainment properties: Caesars Forum, Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Harrah’s, Horseshoe, Paris, Planet Hollywood, The Cromwell and Linq.
- Wynn Resorts: Wynn Las Vegas and Encore.
Culinary Union is seeking a new five-year deal, which includes “the largest wage increase in the history of the union,” officials said. They aren’t publicly revealing their wage increase request, but Pappageorge said the numbers are aligned with the resort companies’ increasing profits.
Other asks by the union involve strengthening security for workers while on the job, work conditions and job security, including extending recall rights so workers can return to their jobs in the event of another pandemic or economic crisis.
The union also intends to provide the “best on-the-job safety protections for all classifications, including safety committees, expanding the use of safety buttons to more workers, penalties if safety buttons don’t work, enforcing mandatory room checks for employee and public safety, and tracking sexual harassment, assault and criminal behavior by customers.”
For housekeepers, the union wants hotels to guarantee daily room cleaning — as opposed to skipping days — to provide consistent work. It is also aiming to reduce what it calls steep housekeeping room quotas.
Union negotiators also are seeking assurance for workers in instances where technological advances may result in positions being eliminated, including advance notifications, health care and severance pay for workers who are laid off because of new technology.
Pappageorge, Culinary President Diana Valles, Bartenders Union Secretary-Treasurer Terry Greenwald and President Lana Loebig are leading the union negotiations.
The unions are additionally negotiating five-year contracts at other Las Vegas casinos — although members at these resorts continue to work under contract extensions.
Those Strip properties include: Circus Circus, Four Seasons, Hilton Grand Vacations, Mirage, Rio, Sahara, Strat, Treasure Island, Tropicana, Trump Hotel Las Vegas, Virgin Hotels, Waldorf Astoria and Westgate.
And in downtown: Binion’s, Circa, Downtown Grand, El Cortez, Four Queens, Fremont, Golden Gate, Golden Nugget, Main Street, The D Casino and Plaza.
“I’ve worked hard for decades to provide for my family and I want to continue to protect my retirement and pension,” Roselyn Buie, a cook at the Flamingo who has been part of the union for nearly 40 years, said in a statement. “If I have to go on strike to win the best contract ever, then I’m ready to do that in order to win for my family and have my fair share of what we deserve.”
katieann.mccarver@gmg vegas.com / 702-990-8926 / @_katieann13_ [email protected] / 702-990-2662 / @raybrewer21
