Threat of strike looms in Las Vegas casinos

Strip workers Las Vegas (Snowfall, USA), the avenue that concentrates the majority of casinos and Hotels of the city, voted in favor of giving freedom to unions to call a strike to improve their working conditions, local media reported this Wednesday.

95% of the members of the culinary workers and waiters union gave their union leaders permission to call a strike in case the negotiations being carried out with the casino and hotel companies fail.

There is no set date for the work stoppage, which if called could bring together 53,000 housekeepers, waiters and other employees of the famous Las Vegas Strip, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The union is negotiating a new five-year collective bargaining agreement with MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment Corporation and Wynn/Encore Resorts, the city’s largest casino owners.

As of September 15, 40,000 employees at 22 Las Vegas casinos are working under an expired collective bargaining agreement, the union denounced in a statement.

The workers are asking for salary increases, a reduced workload in cleaning rooms and better protection against attacks and harassment from customers, among other demands.

“So many months of negotiations are enough. “We need to move forward.” declared Ted Pappageorge, treasurer of the union organization, on social media.

Among the hotels and casinos that could go on strike there are several emblematic ones such as Bellagio, Excalibur, Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Paris or Planet Hollywood.

The union warned companies that it has a “long history of successful strikes.” The last one was in 1991 when 500 workers at the Frontier casino in Las Vegas stopped for more than six months until they achieved a salary increase.

The threat of a strike in Las Vegas joins other active work stoppages such as that of the automobile industry in Detroit, where the president of the United States, Joe Biden, joined the union picket lines on Tuesday to show his support for the demands of Workers.

In addition, Hollywood screenwriters lifted the strike they had been on since May on Wednesday after having reached a new agreement with film and television producers, although the actors are still on strike.

Fountain. EFE