A line of cars head southbound on the Las Vegas Strip during a Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, caravan Tuesday, May 12, 2020. Union members are asking for casinos share their full re-opening plans and implement strong worker and visitor protections.
Tuesday, May 12, 2020 | 9:30 p.m.
The Las Vegas Strip, mostly deserted since mid-March because of coronavirus-related closures, experienced a brief semblance of normalcy on Tuesday afternoon.
Hundreds of cars transporting thousands of Culinary Workers Union Local 226 members occupied the road in a procession to demand resorts have adequate protections in place to keep employees and customers safe from the virus when they eventually reopen.
“Don’t roll the dice with workers’ lives,” read several signs and window paintings on the honking vehicles.
The union, which represents more than 60,000 Nevada hotel and casino employees, about 98% of whom are currently jobless, is asking state officials and the Nevada Gaming Commission to implement coronavirus mitigation efforts proposed by the union. The union wants enough personal protective equipment for workers and customers, as well as enhanced cleaning, disinfecting, and social distancing regulations.
Gambling regulators have the final say on rules, which they approved last week to include limiting customers, keeping gamblers spaced apart, disinfecting dice and cards, among other safety protocols.
The union is also pressing resorts to be transparent with their reopening plans, including the safety plans for its employees and guests. MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and Las Vegas Sands have released plans, but the parties are wrestling with how the new normal will look and feel since the coronavirus is a moving target with a number of uncertainties.
As it stands, there’s little contrast between the guidelines released by the resort companies and the union’s proposals, which include testing and screening of employees for COVID-19, and temperature checks for everyone who enters the properties.
“These guidelines will require detailed protocols unique to each gaming facility,” according to the union. “Clear lines of authority, accountability and monitoring must be established,” and employees must be given a voice in the deployment and enforcement.
“We need all of the companies to release their plans — the public deserves to know how the companies are going to open safely,” said Bethany Khan, the union’s director of communications. “Workers are ready to work, but they want to work safely. They want to make sure that they’re not going to be taking the virus back to their families and their children.”
It’s a message echoed by the workers in the caravan Tuesday.
Union member Francisca Gomez said unemployment benefits have made the economic crunch from the pandemic tolerable. But those will run out and “how are we going to survive? We need to pay rent, bills and buy food. We have children,” the MGM Resorts housekeeper said from her car.
A single mother, Patricia Alvarado is most nervous about catching COVID-19 at work and infecting her children, but she said she is ready to return with proper safety guidelines. “We want our job,” the Vdara housekeeper said.
Gabriela Barron, a housekeeper at the Palms, said she’s fearful about becoming infected with COVID-19 but wants to return to work because “bills don’t wait.”
The Palms, whose parent company Station Casinos hasn’t reached a collective bargaining agreement with the union, has paid employees through the closures. But the final check is Friday, and she’s not sure when the Palms will reopen, she said.
