Members of the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, picket outside Paris Las Vegas before a Culinary Union civil disobedience protest on the Las Vegas Strip Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. The union is currently in contract negotiations with the casinos. Seventy-five people were arrested after blocking part of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023 | 7:46 p.m.
Members of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 participated in a rally that culminated in the arrest of 75 hospitality workers Wednesday night on the Las Vegas Strip, where unfinished construction for Formula One’s Las Vegas Prix — one of many inaugural events on the city’s horizon that could be waylaid by the unions’ potential to strike — loomed over them.
The workers marched, danced and sang outside Paris Las Vegas and the Bellagio to tunes like Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” before nearly a hundred union members staged a nonviolent act of civil disobedience in the middle of the street to prompt their arrest.
The demonstration was the next step amid ongoing, monthslong contract talks between the unions and three major resort companies on a new five-year contract.
“You never want to get arrested,” Leslie Lilla, a cocktail server at the Bellagio, said Wednesday evening, wearing a yellow ribbon around her arm to indicate her arrest later that night. “You always want to be a law-abiding citizen. But our country allows us to peacefully protest, and do disobedient actions to show and prove a point. This is important.”
The union has been bargaining since April with MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts — with a combined total of 40,000 employees working under expired contracts between the three.
“It’s a lot of time,” said Nick Houck, a bartender at Aria who noted he spent 13 hours at the negotiating table with MGM this week and volunteered to be arrested Wednesday. “These contracts only last five years. We can’t spend a year negotiating them. There’s got to be an end to it one way or another.
The culinary and bartenders unions voted in strong support of a strike authorization a month ago, arming the negotiating committee with the ability to call a strike at any time. Union members in Michigan at the MGM Grand Detroit have been on strike for more than a week, citing a need for better health care, job protection and more.
This week, Culinary returned to the negotiating table for the second time since the strike-authorization vote, beginning with MGM earlier this week. It is slated to meet Friday with Caesars and Monday with Wynn.
The union saw “movement” in negotiations with MGM — particularly regarding wage and benefits — but still not enough, said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer and chief negotiator for the union Wednesday, after he led members in a chant of “They say take away; we say no way.”
The union, which is also asking for a reduced workload and a greater return to work for employees following the pandemic, has not seen enough movement on other issues like technology, job safety, daily room cleaning and the rights of nonunion restaurants, Pappageorge said.
“So all of those things — they’re not resolved,” he said. “And we can make movement but we’ve got to … get in the end zone in order to get a goal right here. And if we don’t do that, there’s going to be a strike.”
A strike deadline for MGM, Caesars and Wynn is imminent and the union could be calling a strike as soon as next week, Pappgeorge said, emphasizing that the union ultimately doesn’t want to strike but will if it must.
Wynn Resorts declined to comment on Wednesday’s rally or the state of negotiations. MGM and Caesars did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Culinary picketed for the first time in decades Oct. 12 outside MGM and Caesars properties on the Strip — the same day that Vice President Kamala Harris stopped by the union’s headquarters in a show of support, while in town for an education event.
The demonstration on Wednesday’s was yet another opportunity to “send a message” to resorts that hospitality workers are committed to making their rent, taking care of their families and having decent health care as inflation persists, Pappageorge said, and will go on strike if necessary.
“Our goal here is to make sure that these companies understand 95% of the workers voted to authorize a strike,” he said. “We’ve been patient. We’ve been bargaining for over six months … so we want to get moving.”
The arrestees Wednesday night were all shop stewards — union members with leadership roles at their properties who typically represent other workers in union matters — and members of the union’s negotiating committee.
The arrest for participating in the civil disobedience would remain permanently on the record of the union member, said Bethany Khan, the union’s spokeswoman. Charges weren’t released when the Sun went to press.
“I was a single mom and without that culinary insurance and without that pension, I would have never survived as a single mom,” Lilla said. “So it’s worth the risk and it’s worth the mark on my record, to make sure that what I received as a union member when I was only in my 20s — that I pass that on to the next generation coming up.”
Pappageorge, who was among the protestors arrested toward the end of the night — each of whom was escorted away by police to the cheers of their fellow hospitality workers — said that union members showing that they will do whatever it takes to fight for a fair contract and for their families will win them the support of the public, as it has in the past.
“It’s a moral issue when you decide to take an arrest in order to fight for your cause,” he said, adding that the union is respectful of and cooperative with Metro Police. “And there’s no better cause than what we’re fighting for right now. So workers will be taken away, they will be processed and released and then we will represent them in court.”
Workers all over the country are being “squeezed” by massive corporations while they make record profits, and it’s time for them to share the wealth, Pappageorge said.
After all arrests had been made, roads reopened and the sun set on Wednesday, workers on Las Vegas Boulevard could still be seen and heard chanting for their new contract.
“Because of the financial capacity of Las Vegas right now, this is actually a no-brainer for the company,” Lilla said. “We want to partner with them to make Las Vegas the best. We’re just asking to be part of the pie.”
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