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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
David Martinez, a lead cashier at the Las Vegas Raiders-run Allegiant Stadium, has heard LVCVA tourism agency CEO Steve Hill crow about great the stadium is at creating jobs.
The problem, as Martinez saw it, was that Hill never told the public that these jobs paid $13 an hour and had no medical benefits.
“We hear the Raiders are making record sales. For me, I have not had a raise in two years,” said Martinez, who makes $14.50 as a lead cashier at Allegiant Stadium. “I don’t want the whole pie. I just want my fair share of the pie.”
Martinez told his story to LVSportsBiz.com at a media session Tuesday morning when culinary union leaders in Las Vegas joined forces with NFL Players Association President JC Tretter and NFL players union Executive Director Lloyd Howell to launch a campaign to organize 1,500 non-union workers at Allegiant Stadium against the backdrop of Super Bowl 58 week here in Sin City.
Here’s Tretter talking with Culinary 226 members at the union’s HQ in Las Vegas:
Union leaders with the AFL-CIO Sports Council, UNITE HERE, the NFL Players Association, and employees of Allegiant Stadium said a union is needed because the stadium and the Raiders generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, while paying ushers, cleaners and concessions stands workers only $13 an hour without benefits.
LVSportsBiz.com spoke with Tretter to find out why the NFL players union is getting involved in organizing workers at Allegiant Stadium.
Tretter told culinary members that bringing workers at Allegiant Stadium into the union “was a game-changing moment.”
Martinez, the lead cashier, said if he had a chance to talk with Raiders players he would tell them, “If you have a union, why can’t I?”
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 are Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, which represents 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno. The unions represent most of the casino workers on the Strip and in downtown Las Vegas.
The Culinary Union was effective at reaching deals for many hotel workers right before the Formula 1 race in the Strip corridor in mid-November.