Wynn Staff Seals Union Pact, Strengthening Hold on Vegas Casinos

Las Vegas hospitality workers have approved a deal with Wynn Resorts Ltd., clinching a five-year agreement that offers pay raises and guardrails against the looming threat of artificial intelligence.

Five-thousand unionized Wynn workers nearly unanimously voted to ratify the final piece of a $2 billion deal that includes workers at Caesars Entertainment Corp. and MGM Resorts International, according to Culinary Workers Union Local 226.

The agreements cover about 35,000 workers at more than a dozen properties, including Caesars Palace, the Bellagio, and Wynn Las Vegas. Labor leaders called the agreement historic even as they acknowledged it won’t be enough to keep up with skyrocketing cost of living.

Workers at all three companies will get a pay raise of about $3 an hour in the first year, according to the union. The contract offers a 32% increase over the five-year agreement, including wages and benefits, topping out at an hourly rate equivalent to $37, union spokeswoman Bethany Khan said Wednesday ahead of the vote results announcement.

The agreements also include a host of protections against AI, automation, and robotics that could eliminate front-line workers such as hotel check-in clerks and bartenders .

Companies must notify the union six months before the introduction of new technology and provide training to workers whose jobs are affected, union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said earlier this month. The agreements also require companies to bargain over any technology that tracks worker movements. Employees laid off due to technology will get enhanced severance and health-care benefits.

The agreements also expand recall rights for employees who are furloughed during another pandemic, economic crisis, or natural disaster, giving them the option to return for up to three years. About 10,000 of the union’s workers laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic never returned, often because they weren’t called back, Pappageorge told reporters Wednesday.

Tense negotiations between the union and casino owners continued right up to the brink of a strike deadline earlier this month, and were the latest in a series of labor disruptions that swept the nation this summer and fall.

From actors and writers in Hollywood to auto workers in Detroit, workers felt emboldened by a tight labor market and surging corporate profits.

“We feel and we know that these are record contracts, but we are in some very great economic times,” Pappageorge said. “The country is headed in a terrific direction, the economy is going full steam, and we are seeing the benefits of that here in Las Vegas.”

The Culinary union likely had additional leverage because of a Formula One auto race that drew thousands to Las Vegas earlier this month, and was expected to rake in nearly $1.3 billion for the local economy—more than twice the profits anticipated from the Super Bowl scheduled for February 2024.