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LAS VEGAS (AP) — It has been only two years since thousands of Las Vegas Culinary Union members staged protests at The Cosmopolitan casino-hotel leading to hundreds of arrests. But now that private equity firm Blackstone has bought the resort from Deutsche Bank, the union's leadership and company officials say they're optimistic about negotiating a labor contract to cover some 2,400 employees.
The two sides literally toasted to each other at a news conference Wednesday morning along with lawmakers Rep. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, and Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, clinking champagne-filled flutes and signaling a labor contract could be brokered with far less strife, if any.
In remembering the last time he stood inside The Cosmopolitan during one of the union's protests, D. Taylor, president of UNITE HERE, the union that includes Nevada's Culinary Workers Union Local 226, pointed to a spot inside the entrance of the casino.
"I got arrested right over there," he said as he stood on stage with the new owners of the resort.
A majority of service workers signed cards in 2010 requesting to be represented by the union. In 2013, the union staged at least three protests on the Strip, a first in 10 years at the time, stopping traffic and in some cases booing tourists who crossed the picket line.
There's no signed deal yet. But both sides pointed out Blackstone — which owns a majority stake in Hilton — had brokered labor contracts before with UNITE HERE as had William McBeath, the new president and CEO of The Cosmopolitan.
McBeath said they're starting with a semi-clean slate for negotiations that he said would begin in earnest in mid-March.
"There is zero negative overhang or animus," McBeath said of the relationship between Blackstone and the Culinary Union considering the group's history protesting The Cosmopolitan. "It's a fresh start."
Jonathan Gray, Blackstone's global head of real estate, said he had every expectation that the two sides would come to an agreement.
Taylor said he doesn't expect the two sides to suddenly sing "kumbaya" and come to an agreement. But he doesn't expect the acrimony involved in negotiating with the casino's managers before because the property has a new negotiating team in place.
"They're all gone," he said of the prior negotiators and owners, Deutsche Bank.
Workers want benefits commensurate with the rest of the Strip properties, Taylor said.
The Cosmopolitan is one of a few major Las Vegas casino-hotels without a collective bargaining agreement with the union along with the Venetian and Palazzo, the Hard Rock Hotel and The Palms. The union has also been targeting Station Casinos, which operates several casino-hotel properties around Las Vegas appealing to locals.
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