9 impressive facts about Nevada’s Culinary Workers Union

With members representing 178 countries, the Culinary Workers Union is the largest Latinx, Black, AAPI, and immigrant organization in Nevada. Here are nine facts.

As the largest union in Nevada, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 has a long history of serving the state’s hospitality workers. Founded in 1935, the Democratic-leaning union has been advocating for working families in the Silver State for 90 years. Today, the Culinary Workers Union, together with Bartenders Union Local 165, represents 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno.

Here’s a closer look at the influence and role of the Culinary Workers Union in Nevada.

The Las Vegas Strip is 100 percent unionized

The Venetian/Palazzo and Fontainebleau Las Vegas are the most recent hotel casinos to unionize, with the former signing a contract in September 2024 and the latter in December 2024. With these properties signing on, the Strip is now fully unionized.

For members, a contract with the union includes standard protections such as health insurance, a legal service fund, a pension, and safety protections.

Nevada members represent nearly 180 countries, 40 languages

Las Vegas and Reno attract visitors from around the globe. This diversity is reflected in the Culinary Union’s membership, most of whom immigrated to the Silver State and became American citizens. Members represent 178 countries and speak more than 40 languages.

This makes the Culinary Workers Union the largest Latinx, Black, AAPI, and immigrant organization in Nevada. Here are the demographics:

• 54 percent Latinx
• 18 percent White
• 15 percent Asian
• 12 percent Black
• Less than 1 percent Indigenous

Of its 60,000 members, 55 percent are women and 45 percent are immigrants.

They are servers, bellmen, cooks, and more, in Las Vegas and Reno

Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 have assisted over 800,000 hospitality workers since 1935. Members work at casino resorts in Las Vegas and Reno, at Harry Reid International Airport, hospitals, and industrial laundries, performing a variety of hospitality positions, including guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry, and kitchen workers.

They are well-compensated compared to other states

Over the past nine decades, the culinary union has championed a middle-class standard of living for its members. New contracts signed in 2024 guarantee a 32 percent salary increase over five years for members, according to The Nevada Independent. Workers will earn roughly $37 an hour, including benefits, by the end of the new five-year deal.

While hospitality workers in other states may struggle to make ends meet, the Culinary Union ensures that Nevada members have “really good middle-class jobs with lots of respect,” labor journalist and author Steven Greenhouse told Democracy Now in 2019.

“This is a union that, pardon my French, is really kicking ass,” he said. “They’re involving their members. They’re mobilizing their members. They’re willing to confront the employer. They’re organizing. They do amazing organizing, organizing several thousand workers a year.”

While the state’s unionization rate of 12.1 percent in 2024 is slightly lower than the 2023 rate of 12.4 percent, the Culinary Union remains above the national average of 10 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Members receive healthcare with no monthly premium or deductible

The union’s Culinary Health Fund provides health insurance coverage for members and their dependents (about 145,000 Nevadans) with no monthly premium and no deductible.

In 1997, the fund became the state’s first health plan to recognize and provide benefits to same-sex domestic partners, also covering HIV/AIDS-related medications and counseling services as well as coverage for gender confirmation hormone therapy, surgery, and counseling services.

The culinary union believes in the power of voting

More than 18,000 immigrants have become American citizens and new voters through the Culinary Union’s Citizenship Project. The free program guides applicants through the entire citizenship process, from application to exam preparation.

During the 2024 Presidential election, the Culinary Union launched its “Get Out the Vote” (GOTV) operation, aiming to knock on over 900,000 doors and talk to more than 130,000 voters by the end of Election Day. In April, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, a Las Vegas native, thanked the union for its long history of helping elect Democratic leaders in Nevada.

To show your support for the Citizenship Project, you can donate $25 for a charitable Citizens Project Nevada license plate at the Department of Motor Vehicles or online. Annual renewal is $20.

It advocated for members during the COVID-19 pandemic

Even as 98 percent of the union’s members lost their jobs in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the union kept fighting for their rights, providing those members with 18 months of free health insurance while also distributing 475,000 baskets of food to families in need through its Helping Hand program.

During the pandemic, the union fought for Senate bills that guaranteed workplace safety and secured the right for those who were laid off to be rehired when casinos reopened.

Now it’s protecting members affected by ICE raids

Many in the hospitality industry are reeling from the recent about-face by President Donald Trump regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations at hotels, restaurants, and farming sites. Earlier this month, he signaled that ICE would not raid these workplaces, but soon changed his mind.

Ted Papageorge, Secretary-Treasurer of the Culinary Workers Union, recently told KTNV News 13 that the Strip is highly regulated, but since membership is largely comprised of immigrants, it remains a concern. The Culinary Union rallied in favor of protesting ICE earlier this month.

A guide to protecting yourself, your family, and your coworkers can be found on the union’s website with details for what to do if ICE comes to your workplace, home, or stops you in your car or out in public.

The fight for the community continues from a brand-new headquarters

After several decades on Commerce Street in Downtown Las Vegas, the Culinary Union moved into a new headquarters at 5241 Spring Mountain Road, Las Vegas, earlier this month. The expanded campus is ADA accessible with more meeting spaces, hundreds of covered parking spaces for Culinary Union members, and expanded parking availability for visitors.

“We are laying down a strong foundation for the next century of worker power in Nevada by expanding our headquarters at a new campus,” said Pappageorge in a press release. “This move is about more than a new building. It’s about honoring the legacy of those who came before us and protecting the future of our union for the members still to come.”

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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