Vegas' 98 Arrests: Culinary Union Protests Contracts on the Strip
98 union members from one of Las Vegas' most powerful unions were arrested during a protest. The disgruntled members clogged traffic on the Vegas strip during rush hour to air their grievances over lagging contract talks.
The protest by the Culinary Workers Local 226 was the end result of a frustrating 2-year ongoing contract negotiation with Cosmopolitan Las Vegas owner Deutsche Bank. They were reportedly chanting, "If we don't get no contract, you don't get no peace," Metro Police Capt. Todd Fasulo told the Associated Press.
This was the second time this year that union members publicly assembled to protest outside of the casino, with the last gathering drawing several thousand of the 54,000 union members as they lined up to picket outside.
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Nearly 2,000 protesters were able to clog traffic during Wednesday's evening's rush hour along the Vegas strip, local reports indicated. The strip hosts the Bellagio, Aria and Planet Hollywood casinos.
Cosmopolitan spokeswoman Amy Rossetti revealed that the casinos management is still working with union representatives to try and reach an agreement that is fair to both parties. She did add that union reps were directly dealing with casino executives and not Deutsche Bank.
The Cosmopolitan is one of a few remaining casinos on the strip that is non-unionized and a demonstration has not taken place in front of a casino since 2003, according to AP.
The union's spokeswoman, Yvanna Cancela, revealed that the union went into the protest that were going to exercise the long standing protest tactic of civil disobedience, which was the first time that tactics were used on the strip in more than 20 years. Protesters wore red shirts and sat in the street and in front of the casino as part of the demonstration.
