The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 conducts a strike vote Tuesday Sept. 26, 2023, at the Thomas & Mack Center. The Culinary and Bartenders unions are currently in negotiations with casino and hotel employers over contracts for its members, and now with the backing of their rank-and-file members will be able to call a strike, if needed, after receiving authorization in Tuesday’s vote.
Published Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023 | 5:59 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023 | 11:07 p.m.
The Culinary Workers Union announced Tuesday night that a citywide strike authorization members voted on earlier in the day passed with 95% support.
Thousands of members of the union, some with kids on their shoulders or in strollers and others leading chants like “No contract, no peace,” showed up to vote on the authorization, ultimately approving it, Tuesday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Despite months of negotiations between Nevada’s largest labor union and major resort companies, a new contract is still out of reach for tens of thousands of hospitality workers. Negotiations are slated to continue next week. The authorization gives the union the ability to call for work stoppage, but it hasn't set a deadline for doing so.
“Today, Culinary and Bartenders Union members have sent the strongest message possible to the casino industry to settle a fair contract as soon as possible, said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer and chief negotiator of the Culinary Union, in a statement Tuesday night.
“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. 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,” he stated.
Union leaders were met with raucous applause during a program in which they evoked the long and successful history of organized labor in Las Vegas, with signs saying, “One job should be enough,” and urged members to vote in favor of authorizing a strike.
“It shows that people are getting tired, that they are hungry,” said Daniel Busby, a cook at Paris Las Vegas and member of the Culinary Union, of the strike vote. “They want to feed their families, and they want to be able to provide. They want to be able to take care of what they got to do from day to day.”
After an update on the state of contract negotiations — which members of the media were not permitted to hear — the workers, wearing red “Vegas Strong” shirts or their work uniforms, swarmed the polls.
“It does not matter if you work at the Bellagio or El Cortez,” said Terry Greenwald, secretary-treasurer of the Bartenders Union, which also participated in the strike vote. “It does not matter if you’re a bartender, a housekeeper, a porter, a kitchen worker, a banquet worker, a cook, a busser or a food server. We are all in this together.”
Around 53,000 Las Vegas hospitality workers have contracts that will expire this year, if they haven’t already, and the union has been in contract negotiations with MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts since April.
Wage increases, health care, a reduced workload, job safety and technology protections are just a few demands the union is bringing to the table, Pappageorge told members of the media during the vote Tuesday.
Other issues include building up a workforce diminished by the COVID-19 pandemic, and daily hotel room cleaning — which the union has previously claimed was necessary for the jobs and overall safety of Las Vegas guest-room attendants.
The union has more negotiations with MGM, Caesars and Wynn scheduled for the first week of October, Pappageorge said. If the union doesn’t get a satisfactory contract within the next two weeks, it will set a strike deadline — with the rank-and-file’s authorization of a strike.
“MGM Resorts has a decades-long history of bargaining successfully with the Las Vegas Culinary & Bartenders Unions," the company said in a statement Tuesday night. "We continue to have productive meetings with the union and believe both parties are committed to negotiating a contract that is good for everyone.”
The union aims to secure a contract by leveraging a potential strike, and Pappageorge pointed to Culinary’s 2018 strike authorization vote and subsequent contract as an example of the same strategy.
It hasn’t been on strike in three decades.
“The companies are doing extremely well,” he said. “They’re making more money than they’ve made in their histories. And they’ve got to be willing to share. So, the companies have the opportunity to do the right thing.”
The pandemic and rampant inflation have hit everyone hard, Pappageorge said, and Culinary members are running out of patience.
“Rent has gone up, gas has gone up, food prices went up,” Busby said, noting that he voted in favor of authorizing a strike. “Yes, we do make decent money. But it’s not enough to live.”
katieann.mccarver@gmg vegas.com / 702-990-8926 / @_katieann13_
