FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Saturday, May 6, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
STATEMENT by Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge regarding SB441 being voted out of Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee:
The Culinary Union is disappointed that nearly every member (including a majority of Democrats that joined every Republican) of Nevada Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor voted Friday, May 5, 2023 during a work session to end protections for guest room attendants, who are mostly working women of color. We applaud Democratic Assemblywoman Bea Duran who stood with workers and voted no.
Historically, lawmakers have tackled issues that impact working class families: From overtime protection, requirements for breaks on-the-job, and existing cleaning regulations that have already been in the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) for years and years. Daily room cleaning is another example that the Nevada Legislature has a responsibility to deal with. Elected officials, especially Democrats, should step up and protect their constituents. The Nevada Legislature must not abandon guest room attendants, who are mostly women of color.
The Culinary Union continues to call on the Nevada Assembly to stand with working women over huge casino companies and oppose SB441 or amend the bill so that the daily room cleaning provision remains.
The Culinary Union recognizes the need to repeal some of the provisions of SB4 from the 2020 special session, but are strongly opposed to SB441 as currently written because the Culinary Union believes that the Nevada Legislature should be protecting guest room attendants.
Daily room cleaning was standard practice in Las Vegas prior to the pandemic, it was good policy during the pandemic, and it is still good policy. Protecting daily room cleaning means protecting workers, protecting Las Vegas’ image, and protecting hotel customers.
Since the pandemic, resort hotels in Nevada have cut short-term costs to achieve long-term downsizing of labor and increased their profits, which is very unfortunate because the customers are still paying for first-class rooms, but not getting first-class service…and ultimately Nevada’s reputation of being a premiere hospitality destination suffers.
By cutting labor costs to increase profits, companies are shirking their social responsibility of providing good and sustainable jobs in our local community to achieve even greater quarterly profits for their Wall Street investors.
As the New York Times reported in September 2020, even before the COVID-19 pandemic: “Companies want to save money, so they’ve created programs that discourage guests from requesting housekeeping, but have framed them as environmental initiatives and offered guests rewards points for skipping cleanings. The pandemic, as [housekeepers] see it, has given these companies an opportunity to trim cleaning even more — and cut their costs.”
We cannot leave working women behind. Culinary Union urges the Nevada Legislature to oppose SB441 as written or significantly change the law to ensure the daily room cleaning provisions of the current law are intact, and also enforce the current law that mandates daily room cleaning - that isn’t happening currently across the gaming industry and it’s an issue that the Culinary Union has been raising for the past 2 years.
Culinary Union urges Nevadans to take action:
STEP 1: Call your Nevada Legislator and leave a message with them. Call: 1-860-777-1222 to be transferred to your Assembly representative. Ask them to protect guest room attendants and to oppose SB441.
STEP 2: Send an email to your Senate and Assembly representatives in Carson City: Ask them to protect guest room attendants and to oppose SB441.
STEP 3: Submit an opinion in opposition to SB441 on NELIS Opinions.
The Culinary Union 2023 Nevada Legislative priorities packet is available online here.
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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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