The unions did not declare June 1, the date the contracts formally expired, as a “strike deadline” because of the complexity of the talks. In an email, union spokeswoman Bethany Khan said Thursday that a second round of “big table” negotiations with the three major casino resorts has been recently completed involving more than 45 subcommittee meetings between union members and company representatives from nearly a dozen departments. Given that more than 38,000 members of the unions’ workforce are covered by three companies - Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts - the talks began first with the largest employers.
Nearly a month after the expiration of five-year contracts agreed to in 2018, representatives of Culinary Workers Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165 offered guarded commentary on the progress of the discussions, which began formally in April. During contentious legislative hearings in April over proposals to create a Nevada lottery and end daily hotel room cleaning mandates, leaders of the union representing 60,000 non-gaming Strip and downtown resort employees criticized the ways casino company executives spent profits from last year’s record-setting $14.8 billion in statewide gaming revenue.Īt the time, it appeared the battle lines were drawn for contentious contract negotiations with the union covering more than 40 gaming and non-gaming resorts in the Las Vegas area.
