LAS VEGAS (AP) — Union members at several downtown Las
Vegas casinos have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if
bargaining doesn’t yield a new contract.
A statement from Culinary Union Local 226 said that more than 99 percent voted for the authorization.
The
vote involved unionized workers at the downtown Binion’s, El Cortez,
Four Queens, Fremont, Golden Gate, Golden Nugget, Las Vegas Club, Las
Vegas Plaza, Main Street Station and The D properties, the
Margaritaville bar on the Strip, and linen service workers at Brady
Laundries in North Las Vegas.
Khan said more than 5,000 members
were eligible to vote. Balloting was held in two-hour shifts in the
morning and evening at the East Las Vegas Community Center.
The
Culinary is the largest union in Nevada, with some 55,000 workers
including bartenders, food service workers, housekeepers, cooks, porters
and others at casinos and properties downtown and on the Las Vegas
Strip.
The union also represents some employees at McCarran International Airport and Valley Hospital Medical
Center in Las Vegas.
Local
226 in Las Vegas is the largest local of the national UNITE HERE
organization. Leaders have been negotiating with casino owners since
contracts expired last summer.
Members last month voted to end a
contract extension approved last June, clearing the way for strike and
picket actions. Members previously approved a dues increase to cushion
the financial blow of a walkout if one occurs.
Meanwhile, culinary
and bartender unions reached agreement last week on a five-year
contract with the LVH casino, formerly the Las Vegas Hilton.
MGM
Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment Corp., which together
control a majority of properties on the Strip, previously negotiated new
five-year union pacts.
The independent Stratosphere, Riviera, Tropicana, and Treasure Island casinos have also settled.
The
new contracts preserve health benefits and add measures to protect
housekeepers from hazardous work conditions. The deals also aim to
restore workers laid off when restaurants closed during the recession.
The last strike in Las Vegas ended in 1991, after workers picketed the Frontier casino for more than six
years.
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