Members of the Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, picket outside Paris Las Vegas before a Culinary Union civil disobedience protest on the Las Vegas Strip Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. The union is currently in contract negotiations with the casinos.
Sunday, Oct. 29, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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Everyone in Clark County has a direct and personal stake in the outcome of the ongoing negotiations between MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts and the Culinary Union.
More than 40,000 of the union’s members have been working without a contract in Southern Nevada since June. Now, the world-famous Las Vegas Strip is facing the looming threat of a strike by some of the region’s hardest-working people. These workers deserve not only ample wages and benefits, but they also deserve recognition for being the backbone of our region’s economy and the heartbeat of our communities.
Consider the life of a tourism dollar: It enters from outside our market and then is spent in casinos, restaurants, shows, etc. In turn, casinos takes some of those out-of-market dollars and use them to pay Strip workers. That immediately sends this new money bouncing through the local economy to grow all of Las Vegas.
Every dollar paid to Las Vegas’ hospitality workers recirculates within the community; some of those dollars go to help grow local businesses because Strip workers spend in the community; other dollars go to buy or rent homes; others support the Strip itself as workers also like to have fun in the Resort Corridor. Strip wages contribute to our local tax base to fund schools, roads and critical infrastructure.
Moreover, money spent in support of happy, healthy and highly effective hospitality workers is generative and builds upon itself. That’s because every hour spent on the job is in service to the visitors, corporations and conferences that sustain our travel- and tourism-based economy. Every positive memory or experience creates an opportunity for return visitors who spread the word about our great city and spend more on repeated opportunities to build lifelong memories in the entertainment capital of the world.
Las Vegas’ reputation for providing the greatest hospitality in the world is not one that was given to us for free. It was earned on the backs of the local ambassadors in the hospitality industry, who help ensure safe, comfortable and memorable experiences that keep our guests coming back year after year.
This editorial board has not seen and is not aware of the specific terms of any current offers being presented in the contract negotiations. Nor are we privy to the closed-door conversations between Las Vegas’ biggest businesses and the representatives of the Culinary Union. But we know that tens of thousands of our neighbors and family members have been working without a contract for months.
In just three weeks, Las Vegas will be thrust into the spotlight on one of the world’s biggest stages, as we host the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix. A few months after that, Allegiant Stadium will host the Super Bowl. Those events are in addition to the nearly 40 million people who visit the region each year to experience our world-class accommodations, entertainment, food and nightlife. The risk of alienating these visitors is great, yet it pales in comparison to the risk of alienating the people who make these events possible through their labor.
The hard-working men and women who make Las Vegas work each day and night deserve to be well paid. Their families deserve the peace of mind of knowing that they have access to robust health care and benefits. Perhaps most importantly, they deserve to feel seen, heard and appreciated by the business leaders and shareholders who benefit most from their labor.
While it is certainly true that properties on the Strip were among the hardest hit businesses in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic, the people who staff those properties were also among the pandemic’s victims.
President Joe Biden’s booming economy has led visitor rates to skyrocket in recent months, but some specific businesses and services did not survive the pandemic, and the unemployment rate in Nevada has remained stubbornly high. Clark County’s unemployment rate, which is influenced greatly by the hospitality industry, currently sits at 6.1%, compared with the national average unemployment rate of 3.8%.
While we do not have direct access to information regarding the specific financial health of the properties that would be impacted by a Culinary Union strike, we hope that the financial health of all parties to the negotiations is being discussed openly, honestly and in good faith.
Everyone in the community has a stake in the financial well-being of the companies that run the Strip. We all want the Resort Corridor to flourish. Likewise, the entire community, including the resorts, benefit from having workers paid very well. Every penny the resorts pay the workers immediately goes to work in the community and, indeed, a portion of it winds up back in the resorts’ coffers. They’re not just workers, they’re customers too.
By working together, listening and negotiating with a generous heart, all parties can successfully stave off a strike and be aligned to create the best possible experience for our visitors, just as they have for the past 30 years.
Southern Nevada deserves prosperous, thriving and sustainable communities, which starts with ensuring that the people who call our communities home and make our businesses and economy work are able to lead prosperous, thriving and sustainable lives.
