Strike averted as hospitality union settles with Las Vegas hotel-casinos before Super Bowl week
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The union announced last week that it would go on strike if tentative contracts weren’t in place by 5 a.m. Monday.
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LAS VEGAS — A union representing hospitality workers says it has reached a tentative agreement with six more hotel-casinos in downtown Las Vegas and called off a strike deadline for another.
The agreements averted a Monday morning walkout as the city kicks off Super Bowl week.
The Culinary Workers Union announced Saturday that it had reached a tentative five-year contract with the Golden Nugget, Binion’s, Four Queens, Fremont and Main Street that covers about 1,000 workers.
The union reached a tentative agreement Sunday with Downtown Grand, which represents about 200 workers.
The culinary and an associated bartenders union are being given more time to reach an agreement with Virgin Las Vegas, an off-Strip resort.
In a statement, Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said that a pact is expected “in the coming weeks.”
President Biden on Monday congratulated hospitality workers for reaching the tentative agreement, telling members of the local culinary union, “When you do well, everybody does better.”
“Thank you for having the faith in unions,” Biden, who is running for reelection in November to a second term, told Local 226 Culinary hospitality workers who gathered at Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas.
The president has been in Las Vegas since Sunday for campaign appearances ahead of the state’s Democratic primary on Tuesday. He visited with the union members on Monday and later visited a boba tea shop before flying back to Washington.
The Las Vegas Strip’s three largest employers – MGM Resorts International, Caesar Entertainment and Wynn Resorts – reached deals late last year with union that covered 40,000 members, narrowly averting a historic strike.
The union then turned its attention to winning the same contract terms for workers at other hotel-casinos in Las Vegas.
Since early January, the union had settled negotiations with most of those properties including Circus Circus, Sahara Las Vegas, the Strat, Circa Resort and downtown’s El Cortez.
But after hitting a snag in negotiations with some of the remaining casinos, the union announced last week that it would go on strike if tentative contracts weren’t in place by 5 a.m. Monday.
The NFL’s 58th championship game is expected to bring some 330,000 people to Las Vegas this week, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
The Culinary Union is the largest in Nevada with about 60,000 members statewide. It negotiates on behalf of its members for five-year contracts.
