Super Bowl week has kicked off to a less than auspicious start, after a deal struck by the Culinary Workers Union with four hotel-casino workers in Las Vegas wasn’t enough to stop workers at three other hotels from striking. The union had announced reaching a tentative five-year contract with Binion’s, Four Queens, Fremont and Main Street – which covers about 1,000 workers – but The Golden Nugget, Downtown Grand and Virgin Las Vegas near the Strip still hadn’t reached an agreement with the union by the start of the working week. The union announced last week that it would go on strike if tentative contracts weren’t in place by 5 a.m. Monday for downtown casino workers at properties that hadn’t reached agreements. The Las Vegas Strip’s three largest employers — MGM Resorts International, Caesar Entertainment and Wynn Resorts — reached deals late last year, with union that covered 40,000 members, narrowly averting a historic strike. The Culinary Union is the largest in Nevada with about 60,000 members statewide. It negotiates on behalf of its members for five-year contracts.
