This article is part of a series of firsthand accounts from people who work in high cost-of-living areas and are struggling to stay financially afloat. If you’d like to share your perspective, reach out to staff writer Pavithra Mohan at pmohan@fastcompany.com.
While the dual strike in Hollywood may have dominated headlines this year, workers across industries enthusiastically participated in what was dubbed a “hot labor summer.”
As hotel chains recovered from the pandemic and contract negotiations stalled, hospitality workers took to the streets: In July, after their union contract expired, about 15,000 workers from 61 hotels across Los Angeles went on strike, in part over the union’s proposals to help address the housing crisis. That kicked off months of rolling strikes, and not long after, another group of hotel workers represented by a local affiliate of the labor union Unite Here—in this case, the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas—voted to authorize a strike in September. Union members haven’t moved to strike just yet, but workers like Jennifer Black, a guest room attendant at the Flamingo Hotel, are ready to walk off the job if necessary.
The Culinary Union already represents about 60,000 workers who hold a variety of hotel jobs in both Las Vegas and Reno. But that doesn’t include people like Roselia Vaquerano, a cook at Eataly Las Vegas, who is one of 10,000 nonunion workers in Las Vegas currently organizing in the hopes of securing benefits and higher wages.
Vaquerano—who spoke to Fast Company through a translator—and Black shared their experiences as hotel workers in Las Vegas and their hopes for how the union can help address their concerns over wages and benefits, especially amid inflation and rising housing costs. These conversations have been edited for space and clarity.
Roselia Vaquerano, a cook at Eataly Las Vegas at Park MGM
I’ve worked at Eataly for a year and three months. I work 40 hours a week, Tuesday to Saturday, and I get paid $17.38 an hour. I do have private healthcare, but they take $77 out of each paycheck. After taxes and my deductibles for my insurance, I get $1,000 each paycheck.
I live with my mom and my daughter. My daughter also works at Eataly, but her paycheck goes toward her education. So I pay most of the bills, like groceries, utilities, insurance. At the end of the month, it’s really hard, and I barely make it.
I’m renting two bedrooms, which costs us $900 each month. It is difficult to find the price that I’m paying because the people renting to me are practically family. Right now, it’s around $500 or $600 for a bedroom. I have a car, and the car insurance is around $80; for groceries every two weeks, it’s $150 to 200. If there’s traffic, my commute is around 45 minutes; but if there’s no traffic, it’s 25 minutes to get to work. To find something closer would be more expensive. Sometimes, I have to leave an hour ahead of time.
Right now, I’m just living paycheck to paycheck. I don’t have any emergency funds. I haven’t had any healthcare emergencies yet, but I didn’t have health insurance before, so I would have to visit one particular doctor and pay $500 out of pocket during my visits. I have not been in a situation where I’ve been at zero dollars, but I do have to limit myself. I don’t go out. I don’t go on trips. I just work to live, pay rent, and eat. My mom has social security, so she gives me money if I don’t have enough for gas. She loans me the money and then I pay her back, but that doesn’t happen too often.
The majority of my coworkers around me are union employees. We practically work the same amount or sometimes even more—so our workload is heavier and we’re less staffed. Some of my coworkers are doing the same work that I do, but because we have different titles, they’re making more money. There’s a lot of favoritism and turnover. My coworkers come in and they see what’s going on, and they leave.
I have thought about getting a union job elsewhere. Management puts a lot of pressure on us; they don’t respect us or our rights. I am a cook, but sometimes I have to do prep or take care of the clients. If we do something wrong—if we get an order wrong—they scream at us. I’ve even said at those points, “No more. I’m done with this.” But I tolerate it and I hang in there because I know the union is coming.
If I had the union, I would make a fair wage and be respected as a cook. Right now, I’m not full time, and I don’t have any benefits. I believe that would change if I were unionized. My coworkers in the union don’t pay that much for their health insurance, and they can have their kids on their insurance if they’re 26 and under. The health insurance savings would be huge [plus] knowing that I would have a raise each year. I wouldn’t have to be at home all day when I’m not at work. I just want to go out and explore Las Vegas, and eat with my daughter.
Jennifer Black, guest room attendant at Flamingo Las Vegas
I’ve worked at the Flamingo Hotel for two and a half years now in the housekeeping department. We start every day and have to load up our cart full of all the towels, and that takes about 45 minutes. Then we have to immediately rush to our rooms. A lot of the girls are doing 13 checkouts every single day. That means you have to get into those rooms, clean them, sanitize them, and make them very nice for the next guest to come in. We do get a nice lunch break, but a lot of times we’re having to work through our lunch breaks in order to finish our rooms.
This is my first union job. My parents were Teamster members. But it’s not what attracted me to the job. [Our] benefits are unreal. We don’t [have] any copay—that’s provided by the company. We have these two Culinary Union health centers in town, and one of them is brand-new. I can go see any doctor with no copay. We have dentists there, eye care, and physical therapy. The only thing I’m paying out of pocket for is dental, and I’m able to get a lot of work done for minimal money. It’s super amazing.
I’m making almost $22 an hour. After the pandemic, I came to this job because that’s what I used to make at a grocery store in town—[which is] now at $30 an hour. I’ve lived in Las Vegas for 35 years, so these are my people. I love the visitors. [This job] was just something new to try, and they had a really good hiring bonus.
I’m actually a homeowner. I have a fiancé who has a very nice home, and I’m extremely lucky. We’re a two-income family. Our house payment is about $1,900 per month, but we live in a really good area with a pool and all that fancy stuff. Luckily, I don’t have to pay for that. [Otherwise] I would be stuck in a rental for the rest of my life.
Rent has gone up quite a bit. We have big companies coming in and buying up all the places and raising the rent. To buy a home right now? Everyone knows the interest rates are out of this world. Groceries have definitely gone up. Gas has gone up tremendously. I have friends that rent—and just to find a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, you’re looking at over $1,200 a month. I had a two-bedroom, one-bathroom for $900 before COVID-19 in that same complex. And that’s in a bad area. To live in nicer areas, it’s going to be even more.
Money is definitely tight. I pretty much spend every dime I make here paying the phone bills, car payments, and gas. We take care of my father-in-law, so we pay for his needs. I do have to get money from [my fiancé] occasionally if I want anything for me personally. Going out after work is impossible because I’m too tired. It’s more than just a money thing. You’re extremely exhausted after the work that we do. You’re not [even] able to keep up with the house. My laundry piles are endless.
We want a contract now. We want better wages. We’re asking for [protections] so they can’t add in different technology devices and things like that to change our job or to take over our job. We’re asking for better security for other union members; the waitresses downstairs don’t have these awesome security buttons we have to stay safe. We’re asking for daily room cleaning. The rooms get super dirty, and it takes us even longer to clean them. We’re definitely asking for [a lighter] workload as well so that we can take care of ourselves after work and not have to work through our lunches. [After] a year and a half of working here, I tore my rotator cuff. So I’ve injured myself on the job.
The union is extremely needed in this industry. We know that they’re there looking out for us [and] helping us. We can go to them with issues. I don’t feel like I can do that with my company. I feel like I’m just talking and nobody’s listening, whereas the union is there to have our back. So I have prepared myself for a strike if [it gets] to that. I’ve been paying off my credit cards and [making] car payments ahead. Strike pay is nice, but it’s not going to handle all my bills. If that’s what it takes, I’m definitely ready to walk.
