Posts tagged Culinary Union
Why longtime labor ally Dina Titus quietly helped kill efforts to unionize her office, ex-staff say
June 24, 2025 // In a statement to The Nevada Independent, Titus said that she “actually welcomed a union because I thought it would help standardize operations and bring more accountability to the office.” She referred to ex-staffers’ stories as “unsubstantiated claims by former, anonymous, disgruntled employees.” “Jobs in my office are hard jobs and I have high standards,” Titus said. “I demand a lot of my staff but no more than I demand of myself because I believe that’s what the people of District 1 deserve. I’m not apologizing for this. People don’t send us back here and pay our salaries to drink lattes and view Tik-Tok from 9-5, Mon.-Fri. That’s not how my constituents’ lives work.” But the behaviors Titus, who turned 75 in May, displayed during and after the unionization effort demonstrate why, the ex-staffers said, they felt the need to collectively organize and push for more formal office policies in the first place. “It felt like everybody else should be unionizing [and] can unionize,” one staffer said. “But when it came to our office, and it came to actually impacting her — that's when labor did not matter anymore.”
T-Mobile Arena Worker Files Federal Charges Against Culinary Union for Stonewalling Requests to Stop Dues Deductions
March 21, 2025 // Arena foodservice employee is latest to charge Culinary Union officials with undermining workers’ rights under federal law
Today’s hospitality union battle is over wages. The next one might be about tech.
December 5, 2024 // The following year, the Culinary Union added language around technology adoption to its contract. In its contracts negotiated in 2023, the union “protected and expanded” that clause, Bethany Khan, a union spokesperson, told Hotel Dive. For members of the Culinary Union, their technology-related worries go beyond robot replacements — encompassing everything from workflow-optimizing apps to artificial intelligence. And while the union’s contract language offers protections around how technology is used at hotels, it does not prevent companies from deploying new technologies in the first place.
Culinary Union strike at Virgin Las Vegas leads to 57 arrests in peaceful protest
November 26, 2024 // In a significant escalation of the Culinary Union's first open-ended strike in 22 years, 57 union members and striking workers from Virgin Las Vegas were arrested yesterday during a peaceful act of civil disobedience. The demonstration, which drew hundreds of participants, has maintained continuous picket lines at every entrance and exit along Harmon Avenue and Paradise Road since the strike began on November 15, 2024.
Virgin Hotels Las Vegas says they are hiring for vacant spots after union employees strike
November 19, 2024 // Virgin Hotels released a statement over the weekend, stating that more than 650 people applied to fill the vacant positions
Nevada’s Primary Results Reveal Union Influence Waning
July 22, 2024 // The union’s aggressive stance in the 2024 Democratic primary, which included unendorsing 18 Democratic state lawmakers and endorsing challengers against them, underscored its discontent with legislative decisions such as the passage of SB441. It showed that it was willing to make any outlandish attempts to get what it wanted. But, this time, their attempts weren’t enough. Despite a significant campaign effort, including nearly half a million dollars spent on advertisements, the Culinary Union’s candidate, Hughes, was defeated by Nguyen with a decisive margin of over ten percentage points.
With contracts settled, Culinary Union eyes aggressive growth in 2024
April 2, 2024 // The Culinary said the 32 percent salary increase over five years — 10 percent in the first year — was the largest in the union’s 89-year history. The average worker earned roughly $28 an hour under the previous contract — including health and pension benefits. By the end of the new five-year deal, the average worker will earn $37 an hour, including benefits. The contracts also included workload reductions for guest room attendants, the reinstatement of daily hotel room cleanings, increased safety protections for workers on the job and language covering the expanding use of technology and artificial intelligence and how workers can be retrained or receive financial benefits if their jobs are replaced. During recent fourth-quarter earnings conference calls with analysts, top executives from major Strip operators, including MGM Resorts and Caesars, acknowledged that the contracts will result in increased labor costs.
Op-ed: A right-to-work repeal warning from Michigan
February 29, 2024 // Yet Michigan should be a warning, not a beacon for other states. Evidence shows that reversing right-to-work is bad for workers, businesses, local economies, and even unions themselves. Michigan has already lost out on two major new plants from General Motors and Stellantis (Chrysler’s parent), which recently chose to invest across the state line in right-to-work Indiana. Michigan’s pain is Indiana’s gain. Approximately 150,000 Michigan employees have voluntarily left their unions since 2013. They will now be forced to pay their unions around $1,000 in annual dues, an especially painful tax given the current cost-of-living crisis.
Pit building workers for Las Vegas Grand Prix will have right to decide whether to unionize
November 2, 2023 // In a statement from the Culinary Union, the group said that the card-check neutrality agreement “will guarantee workers at the pit building have the right to organize and, if they decide to unionize, negotiate a union contract.” “The Culinary Union, Las Vegas Grand Prix, Inc. and Liberty Media have reached a card-check neutrality agreement which will guarantee workers at the pit building have the right to organize and, if they decide to unionize, negotiate a union contract – which will guarantee these will be great union jobs and meet our high Las Vegas standards that the Culinary Union has built in 88 years,” said Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union.