Jose de Jesus Zuniga, a cook at Alexxa’s inside Paris Las Vegas, watched last November as restaurant employees at the Strip resort celebrated the ratification of a new five-year labor agreement between Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and property operator Caesars Entertainment.
He hopes to have that same experience one day.
Alexxa’s, an American eatery with patio views of the Bellagio Fountains on the other side of the Strip, operates independently of the dozen Paris-run restaurants. Like other privately owned food outlets inside Strip resorts, it’s not part of the five-year labor agreements Culinary and its affiliated Bartenders Local 165 settled during the past 10 months with companies representing nearly 40 Strip and downtown resorts covering nearly 50,000 non-gaming workers.
But one of the provisions in the new contracts allows the Culinary and Bartenders to organize nonunion restaurant workers at those properties. That was good news to Zuniga, who said he makes $6 an hour less than unionized Paris restaurant workers and pays for his health care. He is often asked to perform several tasks outside his job classification, such as washing dishes, which wouldn’t happen under a union contract.
“We want a union and we support a union,” Zuniga said, speaking in Spanish that was translated by a Culinary member.
“That’s why we’re sharing our stories. We hope more workers like me can join the union,” Zuniga said.
Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said in an interview that the restaurant organizing effort, which now centers on Alexxa’s, Eataly at Park MGM and Citizen’s at Mandalay Bay, could involve as many as 10,000 workers. Growth is one target for the unions now that last year’s contract negotiations are completed — absent continuing talks with Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
The Culinary has card check neutrality agreements — a voluntary process that allows workers the opportunity to vote whether to organize under a union contract without pushback from management — in place with The Venetian and Palazzo resort complex, Fontainebleau Las Vegas, Sphere in Las Vegas and Formula One’s Grand Prix Plaza to organize non-gaming workers at those facilities.
The union is also seeking permission to organize half of the part-time workforce at Allegiant Stadium while gearing up for another fight with longtime nemesis Red Rock Resorts.
Already Nevada’s largest union with more than 60,000 members and a potent political force feted by state and national Democrats, an ambitious growth strategy for Culinary will have sizable effects on the state’s economic and political climate.
It will also likely affect the state’s overall unionization rate: 12.4 percent of wage and salary workers in 2023 were union members, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, above the national average of 10 percent. The relatively high unionization rate makes Nevada an outlier given its status as a “right-to-work” state, meaning that unions cannot compel workers to be members as a requirement for their job.
New five-year contracts completed
Pappageorge said the union needed to settle the 2023 contracts before diving into any new opportunities. He said he wasn’t surprised the talks continued into 2024.
“We knew coming out of COVID that things were going to get complicated. We had some big disputes with the companies over the technology issues,” he said, noting the use of automated bartenders, kiosks for ordering in restaurants and new advancements in housekeeping.
The union also used major events on the Las Vegas calendar to spur talks. Strike dates were set before the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix in November to get last-minute deals with MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn…
Read More: With contracts settled, Culinary Union eyes aggressive growth in 2024