Three Las Vegas casino companies have reached labor deals with the city’s most powerful hospitality workers union, ending the threat of a strike in one of the nation’s hottest tourist destinations.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 said it reached a new five-year contract agreement with Wynn Resorts Ltd. ahead of a Friday strike deadline. The deal means 5,000 workers won’t walk off the job, joining another 30,000 workers for Caesars Entertainment Inc. and MGM Resorts International, which also reached labor pacts with the union this week.
The union hasn’t disclosed the details of the agreements, but has said they include the the largest wage increases ever offered. In a statement Friday, the group said the Wynn agreement includes new technology safeguards, workload reductions for room attendants, and extended recall rights in the event of another pandemic or economic crisis.
The deals also mandate daily room cleaning, a top priority of the union to protect jobs after many hotels ended the practice during the pandemic.
“After 7 months of negotiations, we are proud to say that this is the best contract and economic package we have ever won” in the union’s 88-year history, Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said in a statement.
The three companies raced to agree on a new contract ahead of a Formula One Grand Prix scheduled to begin Nov. 16 and expected to bring 100,000 visitors and generate nearly $1.3 billion in economic activity. Las Vegas is also scheduled to host the Super Bowl in February, raking in another $500 million.
The dispute was months in the making, with workers laboring under expired contracts at 18 resorts on the Vegas strip, including the MGM Grand, Bellagio, and Caesars Palace.
The hospitality standoff was the latest in a series of high-profile labor disruptions from Hollywood to Detroit, where workers sought to flex newfound leverage from a tight labor market to get better deals than they could in recent years.
The Las Vegas workers also won the right to strike in support of nonunion restaurants on casino properties, laying the groundwork for smaller, but perhaps more frequent, labor disruptions in the future.
--With assistance from Louise Moon.
(Updated to include more detail about the deal, statement from the union.)
