Las Vegas hospitality workers could go on strike as union holds authorization vote

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tens of thousands of hospitality workers who keep the iconic casinos and hotels of Las Vegas humming were set to vote Tuesday on whether to authorize a strike amid ongoing contract negotiations.

There’s been increased labor organizing in recent years across multiple industries — from strikes to work stoppages — and Tuesday’s vote will take place on the same day President Joe Biden joined United Auto Workers strikers on a picket line in Michigan.

The Culinary Workers Union, a political powerhouse in Nevada, hasn’t gone on strike in more than three decades. Results of the vote are expected to be released Tuesday night after a second round of votes are cast in the evening. Some 53,000 housekeepers, cocktail and food servers, porters, cooks and bartenders in Las Vegas are taking part.

The union is seeking better pay, benefits and working conditions as it bargains with the top employers on the Las Vegas Strip, including MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment. A walkout could impact more than three dozen casinos and hotels on the Strip and in downtown, the city’s economic backbone.

“Companies are generating record profits and we demand that workers aren’t left behind and have a fair share of that success,” Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the union, previously said in a statement. He emphasized that the union is negotiating “to ensure that one job is enough.”

MGM Resorts said it would comment on the union’s vote later Tuesday after the results were released. Caesars did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

It’s been a big year for labor unions across the country — from walkouts in Hollywood and on auto production lines in 20 states, to UPS reaching a new deal before a work stoppage that could have significantly disrupted the nation’s supply chain. Workers calling for higher wages, better conditions and job security, especially since the end of the pandemic, have been increasingly willing to walk out on the job as employers face a greater need for workers.

The Culinary Union is the largest labor union in Nevada with about 60,000 members in Las Vegas and Reno. The strike vote was being held among workers solely in Las Vegas, and includes employees at properties like the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, Caesars Palace, Harrah’s, Circus Circus, Treasure Island and the Strat.

The union last voted to authorize a strike in 2018. Five-year contracts were reached soon after a majority of the participating 25,000 hospitality workers cast votes to walk off the job.

In 1991, more than 500 workers went on strike at the now-shuttered Frontier hotel and casino in downtown Las Vegas. It became one of the longest strikes in U.S. history, stretching more than six years. The union said all the strikers returned to their jobs afterward, with back pay and benefits.

Last summer, the casino workers’ union in Atlantic City negotiated landmark contracts that gave workers the biggest raises they’ve ever had. It also removed any chance of a strike for several years, an important consideration for Atlantic City’s casino industry as it tries to return to pre-pandemic business levels.

In past contracts, the Atlantic City union had concentrated on preserving health care and pension benefits, but this time sought “significant” pay raises for workers to help them keep pace with spiraling prices for gasoline, food, rent and other living expenses, the union said.