When Susana Pacheco accepted a housekeeping job 16 years ago at a casino on the Las Vegas Strip, she believed it was a step toward stability for her and her 2-year-old daughter. Instead, the single mom found herself exhausted, falling behind on bills and without access to stable health insurance, caught in a cycle of low pay and little support that seemed endless. For 25 years, her employer, the Venetian, had resisted organizing efforts as one of the last holdouts on the Strip, locked in a prolonged standoff with the Culinary Workers Union.
But historic deals finalized late last year have marked a major turning point that labor experts are calling remarkable. For the first time in the Culinary Union’s 90-year history, all major casinos on the Strip are now unionized, representing 60,000 hospitality workers and making it the largest labor union in Nevada. The union’s success defies a national trend where only 10% of U.S. workers belonged to a union in 2024, down from 20% in 1983, proving that organized labor can still thrive in the right circumstances. Pacheco says her new contract has already transformed her daily life, as she no longer races against the clock to clean an unmanageable number of hotel suites and can spend more quality time with her children thanks to better pay and guaranteed days off. This achievement represents what union leaders call the “Las Vegas dream,” where hospitality work becomes a career that people can sustain for 20, 30, or even 40 years with dignity and security.