Health insurance most important to workers
The Culinary and Bartenders unions have reached new five-year contracts with the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas. That leaves nine unsettled casinos, all of them located Downtown. The unions represent more than 1,200 Golden Nugget employees, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Those without contracts include the Fremont, Main Street Station, Four Queens, Binion’s, the Plaza, the Las Vegas Club, the D, El Cortez and the Golden Gate. The union also represents workers with unsettled contracts at Brady Linen Services, the largest laundry company in Las Vegas.
Workers are primarily concerned about health benefits, for which they now pay no premium.
“As a single father, having a union contract ensures that I can take care of my son, and that means so much to me,” Golden Nugget cook Burkey Rothenberger said in a statement released by Culinary Local 226. “I will do whatever it takes to provide for my family.”
“I am pleased that we have reached an agreement with the Golden Nugget,” Geoconda Arguello-Kline, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, said in the statement. “This contract is a fair settlement which will continue to protect the health benefits, wages, and future of union families.”
The Culinary and Bartenders unions comprise the largest organized group of workers in Sin City, and the threat of strikes may be having their intended purpose.
“That’s kind of like lining up your troops on the border,” said Bill Werner, an associate professor of labor relations and employment law at UNLV. “It’s not an act of war, but it’s an act of preparation for war.”
He would not speculate about the possibility of a walkout. “Predicting a labor strike is very difficult,” Werner said. “You can read publicly about what the dispute is about, but the hard negotiations are held behind closed doors and in complete confidence. There’s no way for someone on the outside to really calculate the likelihood of a strike without knowing how far apart they are.”
