LAS VEGAS – Thousands of hotel, casino and restaurant workers marched on the Las Vegas Strip on Friday to underscore their call to employers to hire more people who were on leave last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the reopening of casinos and hotels, Culinary Union officials said about a third of its members – or about 21,000 workers – will remain unemployed about 19 months after the COVID-19 pandemic in Nevada.
Many employees who have become unemployed have meanwhile exhausted the state unemployment benefit, it said.
“Las Vegas workers built the hospitality industry over the 87 years of the Culinary Union and should focus on how the economy recovers from the devastating effects of COVID-19,” the union said in a statement ahead of the evening event that featured the shift change on a busy weekend with strip sports and entertainment.
“This march is not a protest against any casino company,” said union spokeswoman Bethany Khan on Friday. “It is a march, not a strike, not a rally, action or demonstration.”
Workers shouted “full service restaurants” and “full service dry cleaners” as they marched from Flamingo Road on Las Vegas Boulevard Friday night, where police cordoned off parts of the strip.
The union’s statement said the goal is to highlight that hospitality workers “are willing to cook and serve great food in full-service restaurants, prepare and serve quality drinks and beverages, and ensure that guest rooms cleaned and disinfected daily ”.
