Culinary Union wins NLRB union election at Citizens Kitchen & Bar inside Mandalay Bay, nearly 130 restaurant workers to be union –
Las Vegas, NV – Workers at Citizens Kitchen & Bar (located inside MGM Resorts International’s Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip) overwhelmingly voted to unionize earlier this month on Thursday, December 5, 2024, through a secret-ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). During the one-day NLRB election, 82% voted “YES” to unionize. Nearly 130 Citizens cooks, fountain workers, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, bussers, and hosts will be represented by the Culinary and Bartenders Unions. This victory marks the Culinary Union’s first NLRB union election since December 2019.
The unionization victory at Citizens is the latest milestone in Culinary Union’s campaign to unionize 10,000 non-union restaurant workers on the Las Vegas Strip. In 2023, Culinary Union fought for and won new union contract language to support workers who want to unionize. In 2024, workers at Eataly at Park MGM, Brooklyn Bowl and Gordon Ramsey Fish & Chips at the LINQ Promenade, Café Belle at Paris Casino, and Starbucks at the Flamingo Casino organized and won a union.
“One year after launching the campaign to organize a union at Citizens, we are proud to officially welcome Citizens workers into our union family! We saw their courage and determination throughout this organizing campaign. The Culinary Union stood by them every step of the way and workers never gave up,” said Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union. “Restaurant workers across the Las Vegas Strip are organizing to win the union difference – fair wages, job security, union benefits, and the dignity and respect that they deserve. We are proud to welcome the hardworking cooks, fountain workers, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, bussers, and hosts from Citizens into our strong union family. Culinary Union remains committed to organizing and building power for hospitality workers and we invite all non-union restaurant workers on the Las Vegas Strip to join the fight for a better future – for themselves and their families.”
“I am fighting for the union because I want better benefits, job security, and a better salary so our families can be more comfortable and have dignity,” said Raymundo Lopez, a cook at Citizens for 1 year. “My wife is pregnant and I want health insurance for my family and myself.”
“I’m fighting for a union at Citizens because no one should have to work more than one job to support their family or afford basic needs. My co-workers and I deserve better pay, benefits, and respect,” said Diego Arenas, host at Citizens for 2 months. “Citizens workers deserve a good union job so that we can have a better life. That’s why I voted YES for the union.”
A survey* of Citizens workers revealed the stark challenges non-union restaurant workers face:
- 48% reported rent increases of $600 or more in the past year.
- 61% struggled to pay for medical bills, rent, utilities, or food in the last 12 months.
- 38% relied on public assistance programs like Medicaid or SNAP/WIC.
- 61% had less than $1,000 in savings.
*Survey by Culinary Union of 23 out of approximately 128 workers from Citizens between September 2023 – May 2024.
In the United States, unionized workers earn significantly higher wages compared to their non-union peers, reflecting the power of collective bargaining to secure better pay and benefits. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, union members had median weekly earnings of $1,263 in 2023, compared to $1,090 for nonunion workers – a 16% wage advantage. Culinary Union members at MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, and Wynn Resorts properties negotiated a five-year contract in 2023, which included the largest wage increase ever negotiated in Culinary Union’s history. By the end of the contract, the average Culinary Union member will be earning about $37 an hour (including their benefits).
Citizens is owned by SBE Entertainment Group, with Sam Nazarian serving as its Chairman & CEO. SBE, the owner of Citizens, has previously operated a unionized casino resort property on the Las Vegas Strip when the company owned SLS Las Vegas (now Sahara Las Vegas).
In September 2023, Culinary Union launched a campaign to organize 10,000 non-union restaurant workers and a website, UnionEats.org (available in English and Spanish). The Culinary Union is actively engaging with restaurant workers who are employed in and around unionized casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. The website also lists over 360 union restaurants so that customers can support restaurant workers on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas, by patronizing unionized establishments where workers are treated with dignity, have fair wages, job security, great health care benefits, and respect on-the-job.
“I am fighting to have a union so that to I can have good health insurance and a pension so that when I retire one day, I have more to depend than just social security. Right now, I don’t have health insurance for my three daughters and wife, only for myself through my job. My daughters have to get their health insurance through Medicaid. Workers like me, who don’t have a union, have lower wages – it would be fair if our wages were equal with the union workers in our casino. I have never been in the Culinary Union, but I know from my friends and family who are in the union that when workers are union, management can’t send you home if it is a slow day because the union protects workers in all areas at work. It is important that one job is enough so that I have enough time for my family.”
–David Reyes Ventura, a cook at Citizens for 12 years
“I am fighting to give my family a better life. Right now, I would have pay extra money to have my family on my health insurance, which is an added monthly cost and I already work two jobs to support my wife and daughter. It is hard having two jobs because I feel like I’m neglecting my family by spending more time at work than at home with them, but working a second job is the only way I am able to cover all the expenses that we have at home. Joining the Culinary Union would change my life because I could have economic stability with a higher salary and health insurance that would cover my wife and my daughter. With one good job, I would no longer have to work a second job out of necessity. One job should be enough to live.”
–Raymundo Lopez, a cook at Citizens at Mandalay Bay for 6 months