Las Vegas casino workers vote to strike

Union members picket the Stratosphere Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ CULINARY UNION LOCAL 226)

• Cooks, bartenders, laundry workers, porters still negotiating for contracts

• Nearly a dozen establishments affected

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Union members at several downtown Las Vegas casinos, including Filipino-American workers, have voted to authorize a strike if bargaining does not yield a new contract.

An estimated 86,000 Filipinos live and work in the greater Las Vegas area, mainly in the service and health care industries.

After a strike vote on Thursday, March 27, officials of Culinary Union Local 226, that the membership authorized a strike, although no date has been set yet.

A statement from Culinary Union Local 226 says Thursday that more than 99 percent voted for the authorization.

Unionized casino workers at the Binions, El Cortez, Four Queens, Fremont, Golden Gate, Golden Nugget, Las Vegas Club, Las Vegas Plaza, Main Street Station, and D participated in the balloting.

Workers at the Margaritaville bar on the Strip and linen service workers from Brady Laundries in North Las Vegas also voted.

Local 226 represents thousands of bartenders, food service workers, housekeepers, cooks, porters and others at casinos and properties downtown and on the Las Vegas Strip.

Union leaders have been negotiating with casino owners since contracts expired last summer.

Earlier, the union as reached tentative agreement with the LVH, MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Riviera, Tropicana, Treasure Island, and the Stratosphere.

“We are not done because the thousands of workers downtown and in the laundries do not have new contracts yet,” said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer of the Culinary Union. “We hope we can reach a fair settlement with the remaining unsettled houses very soon.”