Las Vegas’ Culinary Union wants its thousands of casino hotel housekeepers equipped with a personal device known as a “panic button” to protect them against the possibility of sexual assault or harassment.
The request, emerging in response to the burgeoning #MeToo movement and the heightening awareness nationwide surrounding sexual misconduct, will be included in the Culinary’s bargaining next month when negotiations for new contracts commence with the city’s gaming operators.
The union representation includes more than 14,000 housekeepers.
“We want safety for all the workers,” Geoconda Argüello-Kline, the union’s secretary-treasurer, told The Associated Press. “We want to have some language in the contract to protect more the people who work inside the hotels. We know what’s going on with sexual harassment. No woman should have to go through that.”
The wireless devices, which allow housekeepers to alert managers if they’re attacked, were introduced in union hotels in New York City in 2013 after a maid accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then-leader of the International Monetary Fund, of sexual assault. In Chicago and Seattle, ordinances have been passed requiring all hotels to provide them to room attendants who work alone.
The Culinary declined to provide statistics, AP said, but Las Vegas court records cited by the wire service contain incidences of brutal attacks against housekeepers.
A 22-year-old man stands accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper in 2016 at Boulder Station. Police said the man punched the woman repeatedly and assaulted her. In 2011, a 19-year-old man was arrested in connection with a physical and sexual assault on a 65-year-old housekeeper.
MGM Resorts International, one of the Culinary’s largest employers, said in a statement that “Workplace safety is a top priority,” and it will work with the union to equip housekeepers at all of its Las Vegas resorts with panic buttons in the coming months. Caesars Entertainment, another major employer, said it is working with the union “to develop pilot programs that explore how technology can enhance employee safety”.
Next month’s negotiations will cover the contracts of 50,000 Culinary members, including housekeepers, cooks, bartenders and food and cocktail servers, most of whom work at casinos on the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown.
