On Tuesday September, 26, tens of thousands of hospitality workers gathered together at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas to announce the authorization of a strike.
Of the 53,000 hospitality workers in The Culinary and Bartenders Unions, over 95% voted to give union leadership the authority to call for a strike at 22 casino resorts and properties on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Union has yet to give a deadline for a strike, as it continues to negotiate with the casinos, but stated they are ready if a deal cannot be reached. The Union is seeking new five-year contracts on behalf of culinary workers and bartenders that include wage increases as well as more benefits, job security protections, and more on-site security.
More than 40,000 of the 53,000 union members are employed by the three major casino companies, Caesars, Wynn, and MGM.
What this means for bartenders in Las Vegas
As a website that is dedicated to supporting bartenders, we are going to focus on what this news means for only that industry, but it is worth noting that the union also represents other hospitality workers.
With that, lets take a look back at what happened in previous strikes from the Las Vegas Culinary Culinary and Bartenders Unions.
In 2018, the union voted to authorize a strike which resulted in the five-year contracts that are live today. The agreement was reached after 25,000 workers authorized a strike, but before a walkout occurred.
On the other hand, the last major city wide strike in Las Vegas was in 1984 when more than 17,000 workers walked off the job for 67 days. The Culinary Union also voted to strike in 1967, 1970 ,1976, 1987, 1990, and 1991.
Therefore, for bartenders in Las Vegas we suggest being prepared for either result. Ideally, the Union and the Las Vegas resorts will come to a solution before an actual strike, but with over 95% of the Union voting “YES,” we don’t expect a solution to come easy.
