LAS VEGAS (CelebrityAccess) Las Vegas casino workers, numbering approximately 50,000, are preparing to vote tomorrow on whether to authorize a strike that could leave more than 30 Vegas properties without unionized employees, including housekeepers, bartenders and servers.
The workers’ contracts expire next week and if a majority of the workers approve a strike, ti would not immediately affect the casinos but give union negotiators leverage to call a strike before June 1, according to the Associated Press.
Potential properties affected include Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood, Bellagio, MGM Grand and Treasure Island. MGM Resorts and Caesars Palace operate more than half of the 30 properties that would be affected.
The contracts for the workers expire midnight May 31 and the casinos and union have not reached an agreement since negotiations on five-year contracts began in February. The union wants to protect existing benefits, increase wages and protect job security in the wake of increasing technology, union secretary-treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline told the AP.
“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,” Argüello-Kline said in a statement.
