LAS VEGAS (AP) – Union workers at Las Vegas Strip casinos owned by MGM Resorts International voted Wednesday on a five-year contract that would affect some 26,000 waiters, bartenders, housekeepers and other employees.
Officials with the Culinary Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 planned to announce results of the vote Thursday, but representatives from both sides of the bargaining table issued statements expressing optimism about the agreement.
“We worked hard with MGM to negotiate a contract that protects benefits and gives workers the opportunity to provide for their families,” said Patricia Lindsey, a 15-year Bellagio housekeeper and member of the contract committee, in a statement. “It shows both sides are committed to making Vegas a good place to work and visit.”
MGM officials called the discussions long but successful.
“This agreement is the result of months of hard work and frank, honest discussion of difficult topics. In the end, we accomplished what we set out to do: craft a fair contract in a difficult economy that works for everyone,” said MGM spokesman Gordon Absher.
The contract covers more than 21,000 union positions at Aria, Bellagio, Circus Circus, Slots A Fun, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo and the New York-New York Hotel. Some of the terms would apply to about 5,000 additional workers at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, Signature and Vdara hotels.
Union officials declined to release any details about the contract’s terms, saying those would come after the document is ratified.
The settlement – the first the union has struck with a Las Vegas company since contracts expired citywide June 1 – would be a major step forward for the Culinary Union. MGM employees account for about half of the powerful union’s 55,000 members.
Cutting a deal would be a win for both sides, according to David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It provides more labor certainty for MGM, he said, and is one less thing for the company to worry about.
In September, after contracts expired and the old ones were temporarily extended, the union issued a written warning to Wall Street investors saying a citywide strike was possible if agreements weren’t inked soon.
The last citywide strike occurred in 1984, when more than 17,000 workers protested 32 Strip resorts.
The Culinary Union is still in negotiations with all other casino companies except Wynn Resorts Ltd., according to spokeswoman Yvanna Cancela. About 20,000 members still do not have a new agreement with their employees.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
