The Quad employees agree to join Culinary and Bartenders unions
On the heels of agreements with most other Caesars Entertainment properties, hundreds of workers at The Quad have agreed to join the Culinary and Bartenders unions.
The Quad, formerly the Imperial Palace, was one of the last Caesars-owned holdouts for union workers.
“I’m so happy to become part of the union family on the Las Vegas Strip,” Matthew Maze, a bartender at Catalyst Bar, said in a statement. He is one of 800 employees joining the union. “We have all been waiting for this for many years. I cannot wait to negotiate a contract so that we’ll have the same great benefits like other union workers on the Strip.”
Workers at the former Imperial Palace did not join the union after Caesars acquired the hotel because they understood it would eventually be torn down, union spokeswoman Bethany Khan said.
It won’t be.
The Quad, which opened under its new name in 2012, is part of Caesars’ center-Strip Linq, so the employees have joined Culinary Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165. Workers at Linq shops and restaurants outside the casino have not agreed to join those unions.
The agreement announced Wednesday leaves only The Cromwell, a 40,000-square-foot casino and 188-room hotel slated to open May 21 after an extensive remodel, among Caesars properties without a union workforce.
Khan said that should simply be a matter of time, as attempts to reach a deal with new employees are in the works while The Cromwell hires staff. Just last week, officials announced that more than 1,000 positions at the boutique hotel — formerly Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall — would be filled through March.
In January, about 13,000 Caesars workers in the Culinary union agreed to a five-year contract. Employees at The Quad were not a part of that deal.
Caesars Entertainment spokesman Gary Thompson said, “We look forward to negotiating a mutually beneficial contract with the unions representing these workers at The Quad.”
Union officials expect those talks to begin soon and expect the agreement with The Quad employees to mirror the deal with the rest of Caesars workers.
“Workers at The Quad work as hard as any other workers at the many union resorts around them on the Strip. They deserve the same opportunity to provide for their families, the same fair working conditions and good benefits through a union contract like our other members,” Geoconda Argüello-Kline, Culinary union secretary-treasurer said in a statement. “We applaud Caesars Entertainment for respecting its workers at The Quad by allowing them to have a fair process to make this important decision for themselves.”
Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.
