Laid-off casino and hotel workers gathered outside the Nevada statehouse in Carson City last week, demanding that lawmakers require their former employers to rehire them at pre-pandemic wages, rather than hire new workers for less.
Nevada’s powerful Culinary Union and other unions support the effort and contend that any members who had worked at least six months before being laid off last year be brought back under the terms of their old contracts.
Matthew Seevers, who worked for 15 years as a bartender at Stations Casino before being laid off last spring, asked the Associated Press, “Why should we not have our jobs back when these places open up? We put our time in and we were a family. Now they don’t care. They just throw us away to the curb.”
The AP reports that workers’ “Right to Return” proposal has pitted Culinary against chambers of commerce, casinos and the Nevada Resort Association.
“The bill would further damage Nevada’s recovery efforts by placing an arduous burden on employers through needless, time-consuming and counter-productive requirements that will significantly slow down rehiring and further delay bringing more Nevadans back to work,” Nevada Resort Association President Virginia Valentine told the Nevada Current in April.
Phil Jaynes, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 720, wholeheartedly disagrees, and said hiring less skilled workers to save on wages isn’t good business. He told the picketing workers the proposal is “right for corporations and it’s right for the workers.”
Barry Lieberman, an attorney for South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, said the proposal would discriminate against people who want to be new casino hires. “There are many qualified Nevadans who are unemployed and trying to support their families,” he said. “The bill will have the effect of discouraging the hiring of anyone who was not previously employed by the South Point and is a disservice to those people seeking employment to support their families.”
