The Culinary Workers Union, UNITE HERE Local 226 is a local union affiliated with UNITE HERE which operates in the Las Vegas metropolitan area of Nevada. Members include a variety of occupations organized along craft lines working in restaurants, hotels and laundries, in the casinos in the Las Vegas metropolitan area[2] and Reno, as well as Harry Reid International Airport and Valley Hospital Medical Center. While most Culinary members work in casinos, the union does not represent dealers and other employees directly providing gaming services.[3] The union also has a partnership with the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, which Hattie Canty, the first African-American woman elected to be president of the Culinary Union, was instrumental in organizing. Local 165 of UNITE HERE represents bartenders in Las Vegas although the two locals negotiate contracts in tandem.
With 60,000 members, the Culinary is the largest union in the state of Nevada. The union tripled its membership between 1990 and 2020, even as labor union membership declined nationwide in the same time period. According to labor journalist Steven Greenhouse, it has "catapulted thousands of dishwashers, waiters, and hotel housekeepers into the middle class, even though those are poverty-level jobs in many other cities." Despite Nevada's status as a "right-to-work" state, around 97% of bargaining units choose to join the Culinary Union and pay dues. This has led The New Republic to call the Culinary Union "America's greatest modern labor success story."[4]
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impacts on the Nevada tourist industry, more than 98% of the union's members became unemployed in 2020. During the pandemic, the union provided 18 months of free health insurance to laid-off members and distributed over 475,000 baskets of food to hospitality workers' families in need. It also lobbied for Nevada's Senate Bill 4, which instituted COVID-19 workplace safety regulations for the state's hospitality industry, and Senate Bill 386, which guaranteed laid-off hospitality workers the right to be rehired into their old jobs when casinos and other businesses reopened.[5]
On September 27, 2023, the union's Las Vegas chapter voted to authorize a strike.[6] A tentative deal was then reached on November 8, 9 and 10, 2023 to prevent a strike.[7][8][9] The new five-year contract would then be ratified with 99% approval when voting concluded for Caesar's Entertainment, MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts workers on November 20, 21 and 22.[10][11][12][13] On January 26, 2024, the Culinary Union also reached tentative agremements on a five-year labor contract with Circus Circus Hotel & Casino Las Vegas and a three-year labor contract with Circus Circus Reno.[14][15][16] On September 19, 2024, the Venetian, which was built in 1999 and was the last remaining Las Vegas Strip casino to not have a union, would become the latest Las Vegas Strip resort to approve a Culinary Union labor contract, thus ensuring that all of the culinary workers employed in Las Vegas Strip resorts were now unionized.[17][18] However, in spite of the fact that all Las Vegas resorts were now unionized, Culinary Union members at the Las Vegas Virgin Hotel & Casino have been without a labor contract since the previous one expired in June 2023.[17][19]
Politics
The union is an influential supporter of Democratic politicians and causes in the state of Nevada. Jon Ralston has credited its voter education and turnout operations for Democrats' statewide, state legislative, and congressional victories in 2016, 2018, and 2020, and for maintaining many of these gains in 2022.[20][21] According to The Nevada Independent, the union is "among the most singularly powerful political forces in Nevada"[22] and is a "key cog in the [Reid] machine."[20]
In February 2016, the union declined to endorse either Clinton or Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders during the caucuses, and later endorsed Clinton when she became the Democratic presidential nominee. She lost the general election to Donald Trump on November 8, 2016, though she won Nevada.[24][25]
In February 2020, the Union once again declined to endorse a candidate for that year's caucuses.[29] Their decision came after it circulated a flyer among members criticizing Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren's support for single-payer healthcare, which it argued would leave members with worse benefits.[30] Some union leaders reported receiving threats after the flyer was published.[31] Despite this warning, a majority of the union's members caucusing at one casino in Nevada voted for Sanders.[32]
In January 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Las Vegas to meet with members of the culinary union in what was billed as a "celebration" following the negotiation of the five year contract with casino employers in the city. Harris thanked workers for "making a difference in the lives of people who you may never meet".[33] She was joined by Labor Secretary Julie Su, alongside a host of Nevada politicians who also spoke at the event. Many union members attended and wore bright red T-shirts, hats, and sweatshirts bearing the messages “Vegas Strong” and “One Job Should Be Enough.”[34]
