FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, November 10, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
Tentative agreement reached between Culinary and Bartenders Union and Caesars Entertainment
Las Vegas, NV – The Culinary and Bartenders Unions are pleased that a tentative agreement for a new groundbreaking five-year contract was first reached on Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 5:30am with Caesars Entertainment Corporation covering approximately 10,000 of the company’s employees in Las Vegas.
The historic new agreement includes the largest wage increases ever negotiated in Culinary Union’s 88 year history, workload reductions for guest room attendants, daily room cleaning, increased safety protections for workers on-the-job, expanded technology contract language, extended recall rights, and the right for unionized workers to support non-union restaurant workers seeking to unionize through picketing, leafletting, and other actions.
Additional specifics of the new union collective bargaining agreement are not disclosed publicly at this time to ensure unionized workers have the opportunity to see full details of their contract first and vote on whether to accept it. A ratification vote by the membership will be scheduled soon. Given the tentative agreement, Culinary and Bartenders Union members will not strike Caesars Entertainment Corporation properties on Friday, November 10, 2023 as previously announced.
The new five-year contract covers nine Las Vegas Caesars Entertainment Corporation properties: Caesars Forum, Caesars Palace, Flamingo Las Vegas, Harrah’s Las Vegas, Horseshoe Las Vegas, Paris Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood, The Cromwell, and The Linq Hotel + Experience.
“After 7 months of negotiations, we are proud to say that this is the best contract and economic package we have ever won in our 88-year history,” said Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union. “Workers have secured significant raises every year for the next five years, preserved our great union health insurance, union pension, and comprehensive union benefits, while gaining historic improvements in housekeeping workload reductions, substantial improvements for workers regarding safety at work, the ability to have a say in how technology impacts our work, and ensuring the union and members can support non-union hospitality workers who seek to join our union. With this new union contract, hospitality workers will be able to provide for their families and thrive in Las Vegas and we applaud Caesars Entertainment, a company with which we have had one of the longest relationships in the city, for stepping up. It’s notable that this company took a major leadership role by going first, which was the right thing to do for their employees, our community, and for Las Vegas. Congratulations to Caesars Entertainment workers on your new tentative agreement!”
“Our Team Members are the heart and soul of who we are as a company, and it was paramount that we negotiate a contract that allows them to participate in the success they helped generate. This agreement is one that puts all of us in a position to move forward to greater success, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the foundation of partnership we built with D. Taylor and the local leadership of Ted Pappageorge, Diana Valles, Terry Greenwald, and Lana Loebig, along with their dedicated teams. We are grateful for their thoughtful dialogue, open conversation and commitment to finding a solution that strengthens the world-class hospitality at Caesars Entertainment and Las Vegas.” - Tom Reeg, Chief Executive Officer of Caesars Entertainment, Inc.
“We got the best contract that we have ever had in the history of this union and I’m over the moon excited for what we’ve won for our co-workers throughout this company over the next five years,”said James Tanner, a bartender at Paris Casino and union member for 30 years. “I hope everyone realizes how much hard work was put into negotiating this new contract. The technology protections that were expanded will give us security and will be a bedrock for hospitality workers in Las Vegas. When workers in a major gaming market and a destination resort have stability, we will be able to provide for our families and continue to show the world what makes Las Vegas so special.”
“I feel great that we got our contract,” said Eileen Scott, a cocktail server at Harrah’s and Culinary Union member for 6 years. “The best new thing in the contract for me is that we were able to win the highest wage increases ever, which makes me feel great that the company recognized our value and what we bring to the table, because we deserve it. We are going to benefit from what we worked so hard for. We did it!”
In negotiations, the Culinary and Bartenders Unions have won a greater measure of security for workers including:
*Winning the largest wage increases ever negotiated in the history of the Culinary Union.
*Reducing workload and steep housekeeping room quotas, daily room cleaning, and establishing the right for guest room attendants to securely work in set areas.
*Providing the best on-the-job safety protections for all classifications, including safety committees, expanding the use of safety buttons to more workers, penalties if safety buttons don’t work, enforcing mandatory room checks for employee and public safety, and tracking sexual harassment, assault, and criminal behavior by customers.
*Strengthening existing technology protections to guarantee advanced notification when new technology is introduced which would impact jobs, require training for new jobs created by technology, health care and severance pay for workers who are laid off because of new technology, the right to privacy from tracking technology introduced by companies, notice of third-party data sharing workers have generated through their work, and the right to bargain over technology that tracks the location of employees or messaging between workers.
*Extending recall rights so that workers have more job security and have the right to return to their jobs in the event of another pandemic or economic crisis for up to three-years.
*Making clear that the no-strike clause does not prevent the Culinary Union from taking action, including picketing and leafleting in support of non-union restaurants workers on the casino property.
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ABOUT CULINARY UNION:
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
The Culinary Union, through the Culinary Health Fund, is one of the largest healthcare consumers in the state. The Culinary Health Fund is sponsored by the Culinary Union and Las Vegas-area employers. It provides health insurance coverage for over 145,000 Nevadans, the Culinary Union’s members and their dependents.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages. We are proud to have helped over 18,000 immigrants become American citizens and new voters since 2001 through our affiliate, The Citizenship Project.
The Culinary Union has a diverse membership which is 55% women and 45% immigrants. The demographics of Culinary Union members are approximately: 54% Latinx, 18% white, 15% Asian, 12% Black, and less than 1% Indigenous Peoples.
Culinary Union members work as: Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers. The Culinary Union has been fighting and winning for working families in Nevada for 88 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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