That's why the Culinary Union — which represents about 57,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas, the majority of them women and Hispanic — made it a point to include language in its latest contract to protect its members from automation.
Geoconda Arguello Kline, secretary-treasurer of the union, helped negotiate those protections between the union and the casinos. Arguello Kline says workers whose jobs are changed by automation will be given retraining opportunities. Workers who leave their jobs get severance pay and benefits for sixth months.
"Now, the workers say they have the opportunity to get the training, to learning something new," she says, "At the same time, the workers, they will say, 'You know, I don't want this. This is not for me, but I have a choice.'"