Catherwood LibraryILR School

The 48,000 members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees affiliated Culinary Workers Union (CWU) will vote today on whether to set a citywide strike deadline for their contract negotiations with Las Vegas employers. Facing a May 31 expiration for their current five-year contracts with hotel and restaurant groups, CWU members plan to take their concerns over massive post-9/11 layoffs, high workloads and maintenance of their family health benefits to the street, as they begin a public awareness campaign this Friday. The risk posed by public labor disputes in a recovering local economy based on tourism, has put immense pressure for a settlement on both sides in this industry that has for well over a decade been a model of union organizing and labor cooperation.