With less than three hours until their strike deadline, the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165 in Las Vegas announced a tentative agreement with Wynn Resorts on November 10. The announcement followed the unions’ previous announcements of tentative agreements with Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International earlier in the week.
According to reports, the negotiations with each of the three Las Vegas resort companies were marathon sessions lasting some 20 hours each. The union said the agreements are “the best contract and economic package we have ever won in our 88-year history.”
The five-year agreement with Wynn secures significant raises every year of the contract. It preserves the current health insurance, union pension, and other comprehensive benefits, while reducing housekeeping workloads. The union says there are “substantial improvements for workers regarding safety at work, the ability to have a say in how technology impacts our work, and ensuring the union and members can support non-union hospitality workers who seek to join our union.”
The three contracts cover some 40,000 hospitality workers. Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Union Local 226 says the contracts represent about a 250 percent increase over the last five-year contract.
Pappageorge says on average members of Local 226 currently make about $26 per hour. Under the tentative agreement, those workers will see their hourly wage increase to about $35 per hour over the life of the new contract.
Workers will also receive backpay for the last seven months of negotiations since the last agreement expired.
The union is still in negotiations with 24 other local casino resort companies. They want a five-year contract at all resorts.
