New York CNN –
The culinary union has reached an agreement with 25,400-member MGM Resorts International that averts a strike at eight casinos that was scheduled to begin Friday.
The deal, announced by the union in a tweet, comes a day after a similar deal was reached with Caesars Entertainment that prevented a strike by 10,000 other union members at nine casinos operated by that company.
Both tentative agreements must be ratified by the rank and file before they can take effect and completely end the risk of a strike. The remaining company on strike Friday, Wynn Resorts, is scheduled to begin negotiations Thursday, but the threat of the largest hospitality strike in U.S. history has largely ended. The threatened strike was scheduled to begin at 5 a.m. local time on Friday.
A strike at almost all of the city’s major casinos would have come at a particularly bad time. The city is the venue for a Formula 1 Grand Prix, where part of the strip is used as a race track. The training runs are scheduled for Thursday and Friday next week, with the race itself scheduled for Saturday November 18th. Concerts and other events are also planned, and it is estimated that around 100,000 visitors will come to the city over the weekend. In total, the city has about 150,000 hotel rooms, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Terms of the contract were not immediately available, but they are likely in line with the significant immediate raises the union won at Caesars on Wednesday. This represents an additional amount of almost $4.57 per hour that immediately goes toward a combination of wages and benefits. It said there would be further increases over the five-year term of the contract.
The likelihood of a deal was signaled on Wednesday following the Caesars deal. MGM CEO William Hornbuckle told analysts during a conference call Wednesday afternoon that he believes a strike can be averted there as well, and said he expects a deal to be reached Wednesday.
“We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement that averts a strike, provides our Culinary Union employees with a well-deserved salary and benefits increase, and reduces workload – all while continuing to provide opportunities for growth and advancement,” Hornbuckle said in a joint statement issued with the union early Thursday.
MGM’s eight casinos in Las Vegas – the Aria, Bellagio, Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, New York-New York and Park MGM posted revenue of $6.4 billion in the first nine months of this year, more than half of the company’s total revenue corresponds. They generated an operating profit of $2.3 billion. Both figures are slightly higher than a year earlier, even after MGM sold its Mirage casino in December 2022.
Ted Pappageorge, the union’s treasurer and chief negotiator, said Wednesday that the union was prepared to strike against MGM if it did not abide by the agreement reached the same day with Caesars. He praised the MGM deal on Thursday but declined to provide details.
“We are proud to say this is the best contract and economic package we have ever won … in our 88-year history,” Pappageorge said in the joint statement with MGM. “Workers secured significant raises every year for the next five years, maintained our great union health insurance, union pension and comprehensive union benefits, while making historic improvements in reducing household workloads.”
He said Vegas workers are still suffering from rising prices, particularly in rents. Many casino workers have multiple jobs. One of the union’s key bargaining slogans is: “One job should be enough.”
According to Zillow, typical rents in Las Vegas are up nearly 40% compared to before the pandemic. The typical rent peaked at $1,861 per month in July 2022, up 38% from $1,351 per month in July 2019. Since that peak, rents in Las Vegas have fallen slightly, in line with the national trend, and the typical rent in the city was $1,808 in September this year. But that’s still 33% more than the rent in September 2019.
“With this new union contract, hotel workers can support their families and thrive in Las Vegas,” Pappageorge said.
The average culinary union member in Las Vegas earns $26 an hour in both wages and benefits. However, the union did not want to disclose how much of this goes to salary and how much goes to social benefits such as non-contributory health care and a traditional pension plan that pays retirees a monthly pension.
The unions have flexed their muscles this year, bringing the number of striking workers to levels not seen in decades. There have been 348 strikes so far this year, 56% more than the same period in 2021, according to a strike tracker from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
U.S. unions have achieved some major successes in recent negotiations, sometimes with a strike, sometimes without.
Most recently, SAG-AFTRA, which represents 160,000 actors, went on strike against major studios and streaming services for nearly four months before reaching its own tentative deal Wednesday night. The terms of this deal were not disclosed, but union President Fran Drescher described it in an Instagram post as a “billion dollar deal! Triple the last contract!”
This deal came in the wake of the United Auto Workers union’s agreements with General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which provided for guaranteed wages of 25% over the contract term until April 2028, as well as a cost of living adjustment that could be combined with the guaranteed wages rising the wages of most workers by more than 30%.
A coalition of unions at Kaiser Permanente won pay increases totaling 21% under the four-year contract after 75,000 union members there led the largest health strike in U.S. history.
And the Teamsters union reached an agreement with UPS in July that averted a strike by more than 340,000 members on Aug. 1, that called for an increase in hourly wages of at least $7.50 over the life of the contract and the Pay for a delivery driver there increased 18%, to $49 an hour. In addition, a lower wage scale was eliminated for many union members and larger wage increases were given to some part-time workers.
But some unions have not yet been able to agree on new contracts, including 3,700 members of a union coalition – which also includes the Teamsters and the UAW – who have been striking three Detroit casinos since October 17. One of these casinos is owned by MGM.
And about 15,000 union members have been waging a series of temporary strikes since July 4 against 65 hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties in California.