Local Culinary Workers Union 226 has just reached a tentative agreement for a new five-year contract with Caesars Entertainment for approximately 10,000 people. The unionized group of hospitality workers includes culinary and bartending employees working with Las Vegas’ so-called ‘big three’ casino operators, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts.
The contract agreement covers nine Las Vegas properties and it was announced on the Culinary 226 Twitter page, with an accompanying video of a standing ovation from all involved, that negotiations had taken 20 straight hours. No comments have been shared yet regarding whether contract negotiations have been resolved with either Wynn or MGM.
This result comes after 95% of union workers voted in favor of a strike in late September. At that time, no deadline for the strike was set, but this led to the major casino operators scheduling talks with the union in October.
Regardless, as of last week a strike was planned to occur on Friday November 10 if a deal could not be agreed with the casinos by that morning at 5:00AM. The union employees have been attempting to negotiate with the operators on issues such as increased wages, job security, protections against violence and reduced workload quotas since April.
It is unclear whether strike action will still take place if agreements are not reached with either Wynn or MGM, but if they do, the strike timing will coincide with, and no doubt greatly affect the city before, the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Across the country in Detroit, casino workers are also still pushing for demands to be met as part of strike action which has been ongoing for nearly a month.
