LAS VEGAS— Las Vegas may be on the brink of its first citywide hotel/casino strike in almost 20 years. Thousands of cooks, housekeepers, dishwashers, food servers and others are expected to take part in a mass strike authorization vote on May 16th at two meetings held on the campus of UNLV. Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 have joined affiliate Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) International Union. Together they represent more than 45,000 Las Vegas hotel and casino workers. The negotiations have centered on two principal issues, family health care coverage and the treatment of housekeepers. Breaking with a long tradition of free health care in Las Vegas, casino corporations are now demanding that workers begin paying for the cost of family health care coverage. In addition, the union is pressing for a reduction in the workload for its 10,000 housekeepers, most of whom are immigrant women. The negotiations are occurring against a backdrop of worker anger over the way casinos responded to 9/11— slashing almost 20,000 workers from casino payrolls. As Las Vegas economy rebounds, several thousand workers remain on lay-off status or shortened workweeks, according to the unions.
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