In an interview with the Nevada Independent, Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, outlined the organization’s future growth plans following two rounds of negotiations which culminated in new five-year contracts with the “Big 3”—MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts and Caesars International—as well as dozens of other independent operators in and around Las Vegas over the last year.
Those new contracts featured 32 percent salary increases spaced out over the life of the deals in addition to several provisions related to worker benefits, workload reductions, the reinstatement of daily room cleaning and protections against potential job-impacting technologies such as artificial intelligence.
The Big 3 deals were struck last November in the lead-up to the first-ever Formula One (F1) Las Vegas Grand Prix and the independent contracts came in just before Super Bowl 58 in February—Culinary intentionally set strike deadlines before both events as leverage.
Overall, its membership now exceeds 60,000 workers, making it the most powerful labor organization in the state.
For the rest of 2024 and beyond, Pappageorge said, the union will now turn its focus on the Venetian, Fontainebleau Las Vegas (FLV), the Sphere, Allegiant Stadium and F1’s Grand Prix Plaza.
The Venetian has long been in Culinary’s sights, but its former owner, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) founder Sheldon Adelson, was vehemently opposed to unionization and fought against organization efforts for decades.
After Adelson passed away in January 2021, LVS sold off the Venetian/Palazzo complex to Apollo Global Management and VICI Properties for $6.25 billion in March of that year, and the deal closed the following February.
With Adelson gone, Culinary was able to secure a card-check neutrality agreement at the property last summer, meaning that the union was free to organize workers without interference from management. Pappageorge told the Independent that 80 percent of the non-gaming employees there have since signed in support of unionization.
“We had our first main table negotiations at the Venetian in February,” he said. “We’re in the process of subcommittee meetings right now. We’re going to get a great contract there.”
Matt Krystofiak, Venetian’s chief HR officer, told the outlet that the casino is engaged in “constructive dialogue with union representatives.”
Pappageorge acknowledged that the union has been aided at the Venetian as well as other prospective sites thanks to its nationwide connections with numerous companies and firms through its affiliate chapters in other states.
Such was the case with FLV, which also announced a neutrality agreement with Culinary ahead of its opening last December. Contract talks there, the union boss said, will likely start sometime in the summer. Fontainebleau’s flagship property in Miami is already contracted with Culinary’s Florida affiliate.
Despite the rocky launch and long list of executive departures for FLV, Pappageorge told the Independent that he expects the $3.9 billion resort “to do well and sign a Strip contract.”
The 17,500-seat Sphere entertainment venue has also reached a neutrality agreement with the union, which is uniquely appealing to Culinary given that the majority of its 800 or so employees are full-time, a rare arrangement among similar use venues.
No timeframe was given for those negotiations, but Pappageorge did note that the Sphere’s operators have agreed to join Culinary’s healthcare fund, which he took to be a positive sign.
Finally, the 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium also hosts approximately 1,500 workers that Culinary will aim to unionize this year—the outlets and businesses that operate inside the stadium are independent and therefore must agree to their own contracts.
The union already represents nearly 800 employees through one of the operators, Levy Restaurants, but Pappageorge told the Independent that the goal is to “ bring the rest of concession workers, ushers, custodial jobs and other service folks under our contracts.”
He said Culinary has been unsuccessful in its attempts to contact the other 27 operators outside of Levy thus far.
