MONEY Laid-off Vegas workers push for prepandemic jobs, wages
LAS VEGAS — Tami Paynter planned to park her way to retirement.
But the Las Vegas valet driver of 34 years is no longer sure her plan will pan out.
Now age 60, Paynter was laid off a year ago from her union job at the Plaza Hotel & Casino. Her contract allows her rehiring until July 31, but the call has not come.
If she is called back, her pay, benefits and seniority will restore to what they were before the layoff. If not, she will be terminated and left to find work elsewhere.
News headlines have heralded the restart of Nevada’s economic engine in Las Vegas, but front-line service workers like Paynter have yet to see progress in their own lives. Many are struggling.
Paynter collects employment. She cut down on food to stretch her money. She burned through her savings to pay bills. She has a mortgage, job applications that go nowhere and retirement plans that may pause for the foreseeable future.
She is one of thousands of out-of-work Las Vegas union workers waiting on that callback.
Her hope has shifted toward a bill lawmakers are now considering that would give hospitality, casino and stadium workers laid off or furloughed during COVID19 the “right to return” to jobs.
Senate Bill 386 is being pushed by Culinary Union Local 226, which contends only 50% of the labor giant’s 60,000 workers are back to work.
If passed, the law would require resorts to give laidoff workers their old job — or one they are qualified to do. While the wages of unionized workers would be protected contract, employees without a collective bargaining agreement would not be guaranteed the same pay.
What matters is getting people back to work, according to labor leaders.
On the other side of the aisle, companies like Station Casinos argue the union is only telling part of the story.
“It is a fact that we have already brought back well over 2,300 of our team members to work at various Station Casinos properties — and all team members that were reinstated kept their seniority dates and have been paid at the same rate or higher,” the company said in a statement.
Kenia Cobas spent 15 years as a Green Valley Ranch front-line buffet worker before her layoff. Now the 43-year-old Las Vegas resident is wondering how to be jobless in a world where her skills translate nowhere else.
Workers at the Station Casinos-owned property voted to unionize, but the company has yet to sign a contract. With no recall rights to lean on, she’s banking on Senate Bill 386 to get her back to work.
In the meantime, she has been collecting unemployment and delivering food for money to pay bills.
“It’s the only good I could do,” said Cobas, who has a 13-year-old son and 18-yearold daughter at home. “I have no choice. I gave 15 years to the company. I had my benefits and everything and now I’m desperate.”