Three Las Vegas casinos avoided strike action on Monday after two came to an agreement with union negotiators over the weekend and the other was given more time. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

A big week for the city

The Super Bowl is coming to Las Vegas for the first time and football fans are looking forward to Sunday’s showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. One cause of stress for potential attendees was the possibility of strikes by workers at three casinos in the city. This is no longer a concern following developments over the weekend.

giving more time to come to an agreement with Virgin Las Vegas

Monday strike action was in the cards for workers at the Golden Nugget, Virgin Las Vegas, and the Downtown Grand. The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 announced on Sunday that it will not proceed with a walk-out after reaching deals with two of the properties. It is giving more time to come to an agreement with Virgin Las Vegas.

Securing improvements

The union already agreed to a tentative contract before the weekend with the Main Street, Fremont, Four Queens, and Binion’s casinos. The five-year deals cover about 1,000 hospitality workers and will reportedly see workers get significant improvements to their contracts.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority expects 330,000 people to visit Las Vegas during Super Bowl week.

Negotiations began at the start of last month and the union quickly reached deals with major properties like the Circa Resort, Sahara Las Vegas, and Circus Circus. It stalled with numerous other casinos, which led to the threat of strikes if there was no agreement by 5am on Monday. The main areas of dispute were wage increases, protection of benefits, and curtailments on replacing workers with technology.

A big player

Culinary Union Local 226 Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge told Reuters that President Joe Biden would potentially join the strike action as he will be in the city on Monday. The president did something similar in September when he took part in an autoworker strike in Michigan.

The Culinary Union is the biggest representative body for workers in Nevada, representing about 60,000 people.

The Culinary Union recently represented about 40,000 workers at properties operated by Wynn Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and MGM Resorts International. It also threatened strikes ahead of the Formula 1 race week, but all respective parties eventually settled on new contracts in November.