Union workers at MGM Resorts International’s 10 Las Vegas Strip casino hotels have joined their colleagues at Caesars Entertainment in ratifying a new five-year labor contract.
A spokeswoman for Culinary Local 226 of UNITE HERE said 99 percent of the 24,000 MGM employees covered by collective bargaining voted to approve the contract, making MGM the second major gaming company after Caesars to achieve an agreement with the local.
The contracts cover bartenders, guest room attendants, cocktail servers, food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks and kitchen workers at 18 resorts in total, 12,000 Caesars employees at Bally’s, the Flamingo, Harrah’s, Paris, Planet Hollywood, The Cromwell, The Linq, Caesars Palace and the off-Strip Rio.
Both deals provide for wage increases in each of the five years and include greater protections against sexual harassment along with language that preserves workers’ rights if a property is sold. The agreements also ensure for the first time that all housekeepers are provided with wireless devices to alert security staff in the event of a threat.
Also, for the first time both provide protections for union members who came to the country as immigrants and are permitted to work with “temporary protective status” or under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program launched by the Obama administration that allows some individuals who were brought to the United States illegally as children to receive renewable two-year periods of protection from deportation and eligibility for work permits.
The Trump administration has sought to end DACA, but court orders have kept the program open. The administration also plans to terminate the protections enjoyed by thousands of TPS workers.
In response, the MGM and Caesars contracts provide that workers who lose their work permits and are later able to readjust their immigration status will be able to get back their jobs and seniority.
The union last week was still negotiating with smaller operators on the Strip and Downtown𑁋encompassing 15 properties, the Westgate, Tropicana, Treasure Island, Golden Nugget and D Las Vegas among them𑁋for contracts covering some 14,000 Culinary and Bartenders Local 165 members.
Negotiations are also ongoing on behalf of union members at Station Casinos’ four Las Vegas resorts𑁋 Green Valley Ranch, Palace Station, Boulder Station and, most recently, The Palms, where earlier this month 900 workers voted for representation by the Culinary and Bartenders locals.
