Strikes are a last resort and not the first instinct of unions.

If Bellagio cooks were going to protest by giving subpar effort, they should make every meal take three times as long to come out of the kitchen.

Seeing as how I represented the Int'l Bro of Teamsters back in the 80's, and worked for the Central States Pension Fund as a field rep in Las Vegas before going to law school, I guess you got me there.

(I represented airline workers, hospital employees, warehouse workers, long-haul truckers, teachers, construction workers, casino workers, among others. Don't recall any "no show" jobs.)

Then again, I grew up in Chicago so I understand that your "mafia protection" boogeyman means very little to the worker facing arbitrary employer threats to his or her livelihood. Maybe you should ask Michael Cohen and AT&T about protection rackets and no-show payoffs.

That tactic can get them fired unless they really are adhering to some job rules that happen to foster inefficiency.

Are you talking about right to work states?

Unions are more or less obsolete in most countries in the Western World because of very comprehensive employment laws. The US isn’t one of those countries. The way low skilled workers are treated here compared to Canada or Western Europe says a lot about our society. If you flip burgers at McDonalds for minimum wage in Scandinavia or Germany, you get decent health insurance, 4+ weeks paid vacation time per year and basically unlimited sick days. Those are things unions fought for over the last 100+ years.

WTF are you talking about? There are no states without unions.

A majority of states do have so-called "right-to-work" laws which guarantee that no person can be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join or pay dues to a labor union. But that doesn't mean that unions don't exist in those states.

Strike vote is May 22 and the union workers are in a legal strike position as of June 1st.

Hope both parties come to an amicable resolution before then.

To top it off, Westjet pilots voted to strike and could be off the job as soon as May 21. My flight is booked with them.

Crossing my fingers both situations are resolved and no strike action takes place.

I’m in the same boat. Already booked a fully refundable (albeit significantly more expensive) ticket with Air Canada hoping I won’t need it.

I didn't see the Rio on that list. Are they affected or not?

Rio's union contract is not expiring, so if should not be affected.

Thanks!

Any idea on what to expect if I'm staying on these properties right when the strike starts? I land on 6/1. Should I plan for anything out of the ordinary, aside from dealing with people picketing?

Update: The vote was to authorize the strike, but that doesn't mean that the strike will definitely happen, only that it CAN happen. Negotiations are still underway.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/bus...strike-n876651

Exactly

Yea! And there's no racism in America anymore either </sarcasm>

Hopefully, this gives workers the leverage to come to a fair agreement more quickly.

I think "mutually acceptable agreement" would be more realistic than "fair agreement."

Unions should have more power than management wants, but less than union leadership wants, and that gulf is pretty wide. Any agreement (save for total capitulation on either side) is likely going to be considered unfair by both sides.

I don't know how to properly answer that question other than to say I would be shocked if there ended up being a strike. There's too much at stake to let it get that far- hotels would likely have to close their doors (or at least their casinos and restaurants).

Yeah I would say slim odds they actually go on strike.

A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes.

One down, one to go....WestJet pilots just settled.

Hopefully MGM/Caesars will put those resort and parking fees to good use when offering their service workers a new contract.

Fingers crossed this gets settled before a full blown strike takes place.

Any updates on this situation?

Nothing that I’ve seen. Doubt we’ll get anything one way or another until late in the week.

I've read a number of news articles on this over the last couple of days. I'm going to be in town Jun 7-13, staying at the LINQ. Please correct me if I'm wrong with any of this. Assuming the strike does happen, there's a decent chance it would only last for a few days and could be over before I even get there. But assuming it doesn't...

I've read that there's a possibility that supplemental staff could be brought over from other casinos. Wouldn't be as good of quality though since they wouldn't be familiar with the location. Also there likely wouldn't be as many of them to make up for the staff that's lost.

Rio does not seem to be affected by this, and this union does not cover WSOP dealers or any other dealing staff for that matter. So at least the dealers won't suck more than usual.

Being at the LINQ means that I would expect for there to be service disruptions in room service, housekeeping, and bars/restaurants in the hotel.

Being my girlfriend's first time in LV, I booked a few things for us: Eiffel Tower restaurant and a cirque show at the Bellagio. I've already talked to the restaurant and they told me they're not part of the casino and therefore not affected. I know cirque is not the casino, but what about drink staff? How common could I possibly see that the bars/restaurants not being a part of the casino and therefore not affected?

You bring up some good points. I could see check in lines being really long. I don't care about room service. I don't care about maid service for short trips. Thus, once you get in (check out can be done via TV in room), there shouldn't be many disruptions. Particularly if the restaurants are independent. I mean, does the staff at Delmonico work for Venetian? Doubtful.

What will be the actual disruptions? Nobody to open the door for me when I'm getting into a taxi? I don't want to minimize the real issues facing the staff at these hotels--I absolutely think they deserve a reasonable wage. But the specific impacts on tourists, I'm not sure...maybe I'll find out when I'm there.

I have a reservation at Ballys (free + fees=$110 for 3 nights) and Cosmo (not free--$750 including fees for 3 nights). Probably cancelling Cosmo even tho it wouldn't be affected by the strike--it's just too much.

Everyone knowledgeable who I have seen comment about the situation seems to believe this will be resolved. Caesars has released a statement that they expect to sign a contract around June 1 and once one company signs a contract, the rest will probably follow.

If you want an idea of which restaurants are unionized, here is an outdated (Bill's Gamblin' Hall is on it) list I found of non-union restaurants in unionized hotels.