Food and hospitality workers at Las Vegas casinos vote to strike

In another sign of the growing militancy of workers in the United States, food service and hospitality workers at the giant casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada have voted by 99 percent to strike when their current five-year contract expires on June 1. A walkout would be the first casino-wide strike by workers on the Strip and downtown Las Vegas since the 67-day strike in 1984.

The 50,000 workers, members of Culinary Union Local 226, include kitchen workers, servers, bellmen, porters and guest room attendants at 34 casinos owned by MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment Corp., Penn National, Golden Entertainment and Boyd Gaming. About 25,000 workers, the vast majority employed by the two largest casino owners—MGM and Caesars--cast ballots in the strike vote this week.

The culinary union has not made its demands public and is working behind the scenes to come to a deal to prevent a strike. The union has only said it is seeking wage hikes, job security in the face of greater automation, and protections for hospitality workers against sexual harassment by guests.

With the Strip’s largest casinos seeing a tripling of their profits 2017 culinary workers, struggling with low pay, are demanding improved wages. Jose Licea, an on-call kitchen worker at Planet Hollywood Resort, has worked on the Strip for 25 years, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that workers need to make more money to cover the rising cost of living. “Everything is going up: gas, food, supplies. We need to raise salaries,” he said.

Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/05/24/culv-m24.html