“Load your immediate family into your car (pets welcome!), wear a mask, stay in your vehicle, keep your windows rolled up, and do not get out during caravan,” the union e-mailed members. “Make a sign, decorate it, and hang it on the inside or outside of your car.”
Suggested signage includes: “Vegas open up safely—Workers’ lives depend on it!”, “Up up with safety for workers. Down down with COVID19! ”, “Reopen Vegas, the SAFE way!”, and “Don’t roll the dice with workers’ lives.”
In a Zoom-televised press conference the week before, Unite Here listed its requirements for casinos nationwide, not just in Las Vegas, to meet before their workers—bartenders, cashiers, servers, cleaners, and more—would return to their jobs.
They include screening, temperature checks, and the like before workers or customers can enter hotels and casinos; wide distancing; and universal availability of PPE for workers and customers; and enhanced cleaning and safety teams with workers on them to enforce the rules.
“Hundreds of thousands of workers are employed in the gaming industry in the United States, and it is imperative that any plan made to reopen these facilities involves input from both workers and their union,” union President D. Taylor said then.
“The health and safety of both workers and casino guests is our union’s top priority, which is why Unite Here consulted with public health professionals and industrial hygiene experts to develop a set of public health guidelines for gaming facilities.
“The casino companies need to work with us to ensure a healthy and safe environment when casinos re-open, and if they won’t, the gaming regulators of the states in which they operate must take action.”
“Nevada has a chance to be a leader in the hospitality industry,” Geoconda Argüello-Kline, Local 226’s Secretary-Treasurer, said. “If companies will not release their plans and be transparent before reopening, how can customers and workers know they will be safe?”