When Las Vegas' largest labor union sits down every five years to hash out new contracts with the city's major resorts, it's often a cordial affair. Insiders have compared negotiations between the Culinary Union and its two biggest partners, MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, to a Thanksgiving dinner or a friendly waltz. But despite the overt coziness, the Culinary, which represents about 60,000 bartenders, maids and food servers, pulls no punches. The union has a track record of using guerrilla tactics to pressure resorts into inking contracts that increase worker wages, subsidize health care benefits and guarantee full-time workweeks.
