Las Vegas: Beyond the Glitz and Glamour

 

Las Vegas: Beyond the Glitz and Glamour

Notions of Las Vegas often stimulate nostalgic images of towering casinos, neon lights, gaming, showgirls, organized crime, and popular stars such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr. In this light, “Sin City” has effectively distinguished itself as the world’s premier postmodern, urban landscape, uniquely structured to accommodate a range of unfettered runs of hedonism. Yet, these phenomena have been made possible by the agency of less heralded subjects such as the city’s hospitality industry workers and their Culinary Union. Hence, Las Vegas is principally a story of labor history and union organization.

To grasp the history of this once sleepy desert town, one must examine the rich history of the Culinary Union. Chartered in 1935, it currently holds over 60,000 members throughout Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada. In general, its members hold positions as room attendants, bartenders, cocktail servers, waitstaff, porters, bellmen, laundry and kitchen workers across the Las Vegas Strip. Like most labor movements, they aim to secure higher wages, quality health insurance, pensions, and job security for members. According to a 2012 occupational survey by the Bureau of Labor, union bartenders earned 37% higher hourly wages than the national average.[1] The same could be said for union housekeepers and maids. It is no wonder why the Culinary Union remains one of the few American outfits still holding consistent membership density in an era of diminishing union membership across the country.

While the Culinary Union has been effective throughout its storied ninety-year history, their legacy was built during the 1980s and 1990s. During this time, Culinary Union members and casino moguls engaged in protracted political and economic warfare. Prior to this era, the Culinary Union utilized the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) processes to obtain union recognition and neutrality agreements. This process was largely feckless due to its cumbersome nature and the NLRB’s inability to ensure that casino owners recognize union representation. To respond, the Culinary Union essentially circumvented the NLRB election procedures by incorporating alternative methods to prove union majority. They implemented in house “Card Checks” or “Voluntary Recognition Agreements” (VRAs). However, unlike NLRB elections, casinos were not legally mandated to acknowledge VRAs. So, the Culinary Union had to compel casino owners to capitulate voluntarily.  

In 1984, the Culinary Union mobilized against thirteen casinos calling for labor concessions during contract negotiations. Eighteen other Las Vegas casinos reached formal agreements around the same time. In Las Vegas’s last city-wide work stoppage in 1984, 17,000 Culinary members joined forces with multiple unions representing Las Vegas stagehands, bartenders, and musicians. During the 67-day work stoppage, nearly 1,000 strikers were arrested and an estimated $60 in tourist revenue was lost.[2] In the end, most union officials regarded the strike a failure, as the movement ultimately lost six properties.

In 1987, the union’s newly elected leaders leveraged industry anxieties over another potential work stoppage prior to pending 1989 contract negotiations. They shifted their organizational philosophies by incorporating rank and file structures and enhanced shop steward procedures. With the Mirage Casino scheduled to open in 1989, the union had a unique opportunity at their disposal. Consider: industry leaders also exposed themselves to unprecedented financial risks by using junk bonds to finance the construction of expansion developments. Case in point: Steve Wynn financed the construction of the Mirage through borrowed junk bonds. Being overleveraged incentivized casinos to work in tandem with the Culinary Union. This mutually beneficial partnership helped formally establish “trigger agreements” that year. Trigger agreements refer to the application of card checks and neutrality. This ensured that each newly built or purchased casino triggers the contract provisions under which unionization is made possible. To what degree have these agreements been successful? Except for the MGM Grand and Venetian, all Strip mega-resorts in the 1990s unionized soon after opening through trigger agreements without significant incident. The union demonstrated robust resolve and solidarity again in 1991. Responding to allegations of the MGM’s unfair labor practices, over 500 Frontier Hotel employees participated in the longest strike in American history, lasting over six years.[3] Not only did they strike for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no strikers returned to work during the entire work stoppage.    

Beyond the bright lights and glamour of Las Vegas remains a city deeply embedded in labor history and union organizing. The implications of Las Vegas’s historically successful union organizing extend well beyond its city limits. The unique methods and resolve by which the Culinary Union advanced its objectives is, in many respects, an exceptional model for which other labor movements should emulate. As such, these rich experiences remain fundamental to the Las Vegas ethos.


[1] James DeFilippis and Mia Gray, “Learning from Las Vegas: Unions and Post-Industrial Urbanisation,” Urban Studies 52, no. 9 (2015): 1694.

[2]  Dorothee Benz, “Labor's Ace in the Hole: Casino Organizing in Las Vegas,” New Political Science 26, no. 4 (2004): 531.

[3] Culinary Workers Union Local 226, “Our Union/History,” https://www.culinaryunion226.org/union/history

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