Last updated: February 12, 2024
Culinary Local 226, representing 53,000 Las Vegas hospitality workers, escalates towards a potential Strip-impacting strike with mass pickets at eight casino resorts for a new five-year contract.
Culinary Local 226, the union for 53,000 Las Vegas hotel and restaurant workers, is getting closer to a possible strike that would shut down the Strip. On Monday, it asked for tens of thousands of people to protest in front of eight casino resorts to put pressure on the owners to agree to a new five-year contract.
At 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12, “informational” picket lines will begin in front of Park MGM, Paris Las Vegas, and The Linq. They will last for two hours. Afterwards, the protesters will spread out to the streets in front of Harrah’s, Flamingo, Horseshoe, Planet Hollywood, and New York-New York.
The union is in talks with MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts, which are the three biggest employers on the Strip. The union’s secretary-treasurer, Ted Pappageorge, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday that the progress made so far is very disappointing.
No date for the strike has been set yet. But at the end of last month, the unions said that 95% of the restaurant and hotel workers in Las Vegas had voted to go on strike because their contracts were up. It is said that about 40,000 union members are still working under expired contracts. If a strike were to happen, these workers would be the first to go on strike.
The union’s press release said there is now an active labour dispute with 18 casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. This means that the union can call a strike at any time or date.
The union wants to change the “no-strike” clauses in its contracts so that it can strike against non-union restaurants on union properties. This is why it is focusing on MGM and Caesars properties first. This doesn’t happen at Wynn.
Other important proposals include big raises in wages and benefits, more language about safety and technology, and less work for people who work in guest rooms.
Will is a former Grosvenor croupier who relocated to Chicago from London in 2013. Not only is he a highly skilled poker player, but he is also an expert in the art of deception, gambling cons, and the world of crypto. Now he uses his knowledge and experience to write and edit detailed reviews of online casinos in a bid to help players avoid online scams and losing their money to rogue gambling sites.
