After 18-plus months of negotiations, Culinary Workers Union, Local 226 workers voted 99% in favor of a strike. This doesn’t mean a strike is inevitable, but it ups the ante in negotiations. Downtown casinos potentially affected are the D, Golden Gate, Golden Nugget, Fremont, Main Street Station, Binion’s, Four Queens, El Cortez, Plaza, and Las Vegas Club. The Margaritaville restaurant on the Strip could also be affected by the outcome -- if any -- of talks.
Nearly 5,000 workers could be impacted. Unlike its talks with MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, the Culinary is dealing with one- and two-casino operators downtown, which means many more sets of negotiations. The Culinary can’t collectively bargain, say, with Derek Stevens’ the D and Tilman Fertitta’s Golden Nugget together. Each negotiation has to be conducted individually (and discretely). For their part, downtown owners have long chafed at being held to the same wage-and-benefit standards as the Strip, setting the scene for this protracted showdown.
One sticking point is increased health-benefit costs under the Affordable Care Act. Employers have traditionally picked up the tab for Culinary-worker health premiums. Under the ACA (aka, "Obamacare"), those expenses have risen. By the same token, the Culinary doesn’t qualify for federal subsidies. because it’s already being subsidized by the casinos -- some of which want to see the Culinary chip in for health costs. Culinary political director Yvanna Cancela told Money.CNN, "The administration has made change after change to meet other groups' needs. Our members want to keep their health plans." At present, employees are on the hook for 10% of out-of-pocket costs and casinos donate $3.96 per worker per hour.
New health costs rose so much that Wynn Resorts actually lent money to the Culinary to cover its bills. For instance, the Culinary has to pay $63 a head for something called a "transitional insurance fee." "But since union members can't strike against the White House," reported Money.CNN, "it is pressing its employers to boost their contributions by 35 cents per worker in the first year, 50 cents in the second, and 55 cents in the third." But back to the strike talks …
When we asked a Golden Nugget representative about the status of negotiations, the reply was a brusk, "No comment." LVA also got rebuffed by Stevens’ representatives. A call to Boyd Gaming was not returned.
Culinary Union spokeswoman Stephanie Kahn said, "We are still in progress" with the casinos, although informational picketing (as opposed to a walkout) was scheduled for April 16. "We will be leafleting customers, asking them to respect the picket line. We have a few meetings scheduled this week" with members of the 10 holdout casinos. But will there be a strike? "Depending on how negotiations [run], leadership will figure out a way," Kahn said, adding that it was a "strategic call."
Since Kahn's comments, an announcement was made that there will be picketing downtown this weekend from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., presumably on both Saturday and Sunday. It's being termed an "informational picket," which should mean a relatively tame presence by the demonstrators, though there's never a guarantee of that. For now, an all-out strike is possible, but still seems a ways away.
