Culinary girds for battle; Let’s get it on

Collective-bargaining-agreement talks between the Culinary Union and 34 casinos must not be going well. The Culinary fired off an e-mail blast yesterday, publicizing the fact that it will hold a strike vote May 22 and, should it pass, will hit the bricks June 1. One of the flashpoints between the Culinary and casino bosses seems to be the post-#MeToo workplace culture. “We are demanding an end to harassment in the workplace. Casino corporations cannot continue to normalize sexual misconduct by high rollers and customers in Las Vegas … I always do my best to provide excellent service, but I shouldn’t have to endure harassment — or worse — from guests who think they can abuse us just because they are on vacation,” said The Rio cocktail waitress Jocelyn Cegbalic. (Caesars Entertainment seems to be coming under particular fire as a hotbed of sexual harassment.)

Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline used the recent Trump administration tax cuts to fire a shot over the casino industry’s bow, saying, “On May 22, thousands of union members will show casino employers that workers are going to fight for security and that they are not going to be left behind as companies are making record profits and getting windfall tax breaks.” Indeed, industry bosses can’t very well boast of tax-cut-derived revenue on conference calls with investors and then poor-mouth their employees. The Culinary talks will be a litmus test of whether trickle-down economics really work or are just so much mouthwash.

* Same city, two very different headlines: “Las Vegas is More than a Pure Pleasure Palace,” proclaims TastingTable.com. “World’s biggest orgy to be attempted in Las Vegas,” replies BoingBoing.net. The first slug goes over a story in which the author is on the trail of historic Las Vegas (admittedly a sometimes elusive path), starting at the Mob Museum. “In an act of utter ruthlessness, it’s housed in the old courthouse downtown, where mobsters themselves were prosecuted.” He then dines at — where else? — the Golden Steer, before backtracking to Atomic Liquors to hang out where Barbra Streisand did. And so forth. Writer Todd Coleman eats his way across Sin City in mouth-watering detail. Props to Fremont Street Experience Director Patrick Hughes for taking this shot at the Las Vegas Strip: “Two main companies own the whole thing over there, so the experience can be kinda sterile.” True that. Coleman pays visits to Park MGM, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Caesars Palace but seems to come away relatively underwhelmed.

As for that orgy, Menage Life is descending upon Embassy Suites with the hope of getting 1,000 participants to do the nasty. It’s a bit like Sunday at Rehab: “Players must purchase an appropriate Sin City 8 pass (for the orgy, couples are $200 and single women are $25) and arrive with a registered partner (no single men are allowed) and photo ID before getting down.” Even the security — yes, enforcers at an orgy — are “members of the lifestyle.” If you swing this way, details can be found here.

* Florida‘s Seminole Tribe cut a deal with Gov. Rick Scott (R) which guarantees their exclusive rights to banked card games in return for $1 billion in revenue sharing over the next five years. That might be a pricey agreement now that the Lege is considering outlawing ‘designated player’ games at private-sector gambling establishments. Court opinion already holds that the games aren’t kosher but solons would like to give it the force of law. They’ve done precious little in the way of gaming reform this session, so this would at least be a good start.