FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
VIDEO: Senate Bill 441 hearing where Culinary Union presented in opposition and Culinary Union members testified against the proposed bill -
STATEMENT by Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge regarding opposition to SB441:
The Culinary Union recognizes the need to repeal some of the provisions of SB4 from the 2020 special session, but are strongly opposed to SB441 as currently written because the Culinary Union believes that the Nevada Legislature should be protecting guest room attendants.
Daily room cleaning was standard practice in Las Vegas prior to the pandemic, it was good policy during the pandemic, and it is still good policy. Protecting daily room cleaning means protecting workers, protecting Las Vegas’ image, and protecting hotel customers.
Since the pandemic, resort hotels in Nevada have cut short-term costs to achieve long-term downsizing of labor and increased their profits, which is very unfortunate because the customers are still paying for first-class rooms, but not getting first-class service…and ultimately Nevada’s reputation of being a premiere hospitality destination suffers.
By cutting labor costs to increase profits, companies are shirking their social responsibility of providing good and sustainable jobs in our local community to achieve even greater quarterly profits for their Wall Street investors.
This is all happening in the midst of repeated record revenue. In 2022, Nevada’s casinos generated a record-breaking $14.8 billion in gaming revenue. A Wall Street analyst “expects gaming results from the Strip will grow in 2023, given the recovery in group meetings and convention business, a return of international visitation and the heavy interest in November’s Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, which has already attracted worldwide interest.”
So, what have Nevada gaming companies done with their record earnings?
MGM Resorts International spent close to $4.7 billion on share buyback since 2021 and authorized another $2 billion. Caesars Entertainment Corporation spent $1.2 billion in 2022 to pay down its debt.
You would think with all these profits, a lot more jobs for Nevadans would be created, but in fact, the gaming industry has only provided as many jobs as it did in the mid-1990s.
Government data for employment levels (BLS) in February 2023 showed there were 148,400 Nevadans employed in the state's casino hotels. In January 1994, that figure was only 400 more at 148,800.
As the New York Times reported in September 2020, even before the COVID-19 pandemic: “Companies want to save money, so they’ve created programs that discourage guests from requesting housekeeping, but have framed them as environmental initiatives and offered guests rewards points for skipping cleanings. The pandemic, as [housekeepers] see it, has given these companies an opportunity to trim cleaning even more — and cut their costs.”
The attempt to eliminate daily room cleaning is particularly concerning for Nevada’s “resort” hotel industry. Especially for a resort hotel. The lack of daily room cleaning unnecessarily downgrades and degrades the kind of resort experience guests would expect when paying hundreds of dollars either on vacation or on a business trip.
Recently there was an outbreak of Legionnaires disease at The Orleans. God forbid we get that sort of outbreak on the Strip - the impact on Las Vegas could be devastating. Yet another reason why daily room cleaning is essential and needs to be part of the safety and security of tourists, guests, and the reputation of the #1 industry in Nevada.
In Nevada, there were 25,140 workers working as guest room attendants in May 2019. By May 2021, that number was only 15,580 statewide.
A roughly 40% reduction due to the elimination of daily room cleaning would mean the destruction of 9,800 jobs and $310 million in lost wages for workers in our community and a windfall profit for Nevada’s resort hotels and companies.
This would be an absolute blow to a group of workers, who are majority women and women of color, who have already been economically most impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We cannot leave working women behind. Culinary Union urges the Nevada Legislature to oppose SB441 as written or significantly change the law to ensure the daily room cleaning provisions of the current law are intact, and also enforce the current law that mandates daily room cleaning - that isn’t happening currently across the gaming industry and it’s an issue that our union has been raising for the past 2 years.
Prior to the pandemic, hospitality companies provided daily room cleaning with the standard “do not disturb” card that all guests have available on their door. It was understood that Las Vegas is the entertainment capital of the world and guests should expect full service and clean rooms.
Our five year contract with employers expires June 1, 2023 and Culinary Union will be negotiating wage increases, healthcare and benefits, workplace safety language, and workload issues including daily room cleaning. We think these will be strike issues and we will fight for the very best contracts for our members. But it’s not enough.
We claim in Las Vegas that we are the gold standard, but in New Jersey the legislature passed daily room cleaning standards. Many of the same companies that are opposing daily room cleaning in Nevada have hotel resorts in Atlantic City. Why is it good enough in New Jersey, but not in Nevada? Even with state regulations, UNITE HERE Local 54 was forced to the eve of a strike by the employers in order to resolve the daily room cleaning issue in their contract.
In 2018, Culinary Union contract negotiations made proposals in response to the October 1 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip. We made it very clear to the employers that the idea that someone could hole up in a room and refuse service day after day after day was unacceptable. We won contract language on safety checks and safety buttons, that in addition to standard daily cleaning, would help ensure that could never happen again.
We will continue to fight for workers in negotiations, but daily room cleaning is about workers and workload, but not just about that. It’s about safety and well-being of constituents who work in these hotels. It’s also about protecting the number #1 industry in Nevada and protecting our standing as the entertainment capital of the world.
Culinary Union asks the Nevada Legislature to oppose SB441 as written or significantly change the law to ensure the daily room cleaning provisions of SB4 remain intact.
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ABOUT CULINARY UNION:
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
The Culinary Union, through the Culinary Health Fund, is one of the largest healthcare consumers in the state. The Culinary Health Fund is sponsored by the Culinary Union and Las Vegas-area employers. It provides health insurance coverage for over 145,000 Nevadans, the Culinary Union’s members and their dependents.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages. We are proud to have helped over 18,000 immigrants become American citizens and new voters since 2001 through our affiliate, The Citizenship Project.
The Culinary Union has a diverse membership which is 55% women and 45% immigrants. The demographics of Culinary Union members are approximately: 54% Latinx, 18% white, 15% Asian, 12% Black, and less than 1% Indigenous Peoples.
Culinary Union members work as: Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers. The Culinary Union has been fighting and winning for working families in Nevada for 88 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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