Former casino workers like Joaquin Ortiz have now been unemployed for more than a year.

"We've got training. We're ready to work anytime. [If] we get called we're ready," Ortiz said.

However, the call has not come for Ortiz and many other Culinary Union workers. Of the 60,000 workers union members in Las Vegas, about 30,000 are still unemployed. Ortiz, 65, worked as a server at a local casino buffet, before he was terminated last year.

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"Why are they calling new people when they have people staying home receiving an unemployment check and they're not calling people back to work,” Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline said. “That's punishing people for the pandemic, and we think it’s completely wrong."

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However, the Culinary Union said companies owe it to dedicated workers like Ortiz to bring them back eventually.

"Families live in this community and [companies] have responsibility for these families in this community," Argüello-Kline said.