The Strip Is Now Completely Unionized Thanks to a New Agreement at Fontainebleau Las Vegas
Las Vegas Strip in 2024. | Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images For the first time in its 90-year history, every casino resort on the Strip is unionized In late February, the Culinary and Bartenders Unions reached a monumental agreement with the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. The year-long effort secured a new contract for 3,300 Fontainebleau employees, including guest room attendants, bartenders, food servers, porters, cocktail servers, bellmen, cooks, and kitchen workers. The agreement is a milestone for casino workers, marking the first time in Las Vegas’s 90-year history that every major resort on the Strip is unionized. As reported by KSNV, the agreement is from January 1, 2025 through September 30, 2028. The powerful coalition places Fontainebleau workers under the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 umbrella. In an email statement, the Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union, Ted Pappageorge stated, “This milestone agreement not only guarantees job security and fair wages, but also upholds the high standards the Culinary Union has tirelessly fought to establish across Las Vegas.” Fontainebleau employees, as well as workers at every Las Vegas Strip resort, now have access to the following: A healthcare fund The Culinary Academy of Las Vegas Culinary and Bartenders Housing Fund Culinary & Bartenders Legal Service Fund Culinary Union Pension Improved worker security regarding sexual harassment, technology, and immigration The new agreement also secured a larger wage increase, workload reductions, safety protections, the right to be recalled to work, and for unionized workers to support non-union restaurant workers seeking to unionize. In 2024, workers threatened to strike at 13 casinos to set a strike deadline for new five-year contracts, just before Super Bowl LVIII. In 2023, workers reached a tentative agreement with Nevada’s three largest gaming employers, MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts, hours before union members prepared to go on strike.
Tomas Kauer - Las Vegas Syndicated News 
For the first time in its 90-year history, every casino resort on the Strip is unionized
In late February, the Culinary and Bartenders Unions reached a monumental agreement with the Fontainebleau Las Vegas. The year-long effort secured a new contract for 3,300 Fontainebleau employees, including guest room attendants, bartenders, food servers, porters, cocktail servers, bellmen, cooks, and kitchen workers. The agreement is a milestone for casino workers, marking the first time in Las Vegas’s 90-year history that every major resort on the Strip is unionized.
As reported by KSNV, the agreement is from January 1, 2025 through September 30, 2028. The powerful coalition places Fontainebleau workers under the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 umbrella. In an email statement, the Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union, Ted Pappageorge stated, “This milestone agreement not only guarantees job security and fair wages, but also upholds the high standards the Culinary Union has tirelessly fought to establish across Las Vegas.”
Fontainebleau employees, as well as workers at every Las Vegas Strip resort, now have access to the following:
- A healthcare fund
- The Culinary Academy of Las Vegas
- Culinary and Bartenders Housing Fund
- Culinary & Bartenders Legal Service Fund
- Culinary Union Pension
- Improved worker security regarding sexual harassment, technology, and immigration
The new agreement also secured a larger wage increase, workload reductions, safety protections, the right to be recalled to work, and for unionized workers to support non-union restaurant workers seeking to unionize.
In 2024, workers threatened to strike at 13 casinos to set a strike deadline for new five-year contracts, just before Super Bowl LVIII. In 2023, workers reached a tentative agreement with Nevada’s three largest gaming employers, MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts, hours before union members prepared to go on strike.
