The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is likely to experience more problems as the Culinary union promises to use picket lines more often in the hopes that the casino and hotel will allow members to unionize. There have been four protests since last January outside the $3.9 billion resort. It has been reported that the union now plans to present a picket every weekend, and that this will continue until there is a contract.
An estimated 2,000 employees of the facility have been working since December 2010, which is when the facility opened, without a labor contract.
It was also reported that these new weekly pickets will take place on Fridays and Saturdays. Officials from the Cosmopolitan say in a statement that they are planning to continue to talk with union officials in good faith. In their statement they wrote: We feel we have been making good progress on behalf of our Costars and we are hopeful that progress can continue in a positive direction. As always, our highest priority is the safety and comfort of our guests and Costars and we will continue to work with the authorities.
Most agree that negotiations between the two have more or less stalled. The Culinary union represents approximately 55,000 people who include maid, bartenders, and food servers. At issue are wages, job security, and health care. In addition, the union is also looking to get what is called a successorship clause. In essence, this would make it mandatory that the new contract be kept if the resort is sold in the future.
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has seen some problems as well with its profits. It was recently reported that the facility has seen loss at is faced a 20 percent decline in its hotel and casino revenues. It reported that it lost an approximate $25.2 million for the second quarter. The company reported a loss of $18.7 million for the same quarter a year ago.
As for casino revenues, they continue to fall behind room, food, and beverage revenue. Reports for this last second quarter say the facility was able to earn $30.6 million for its casino revenues. This compares to $38.6 million for the same quarter last year. This is a decrease of about 21 percent. The facility reports that the decrease is due to a decrease in play at its table games. The facility runs more than 1370 slots and has over 100 table games.
It is not immediately known, or at least reported, just how much business has been lost due to the picket lines that have been used so far. Also, it is not known if the added lines that are planned to take place on weekends will cause a problem with the daily business that comes into the facility.
The Cosmopolitan has already reported that it plans to concentrate on improving its table and slot play. This is not new news as the facility has been working on this strategy since it opened back in late 2010. The property is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bank. It bought the property in 2008 during a foreclosure sale. The cost was in the neighborhood $1 billion.