LAS VEGAS, May 21 — The surest way to know this town is humming is to hear its rhythms, tapped out by shuffled cards, rolling dice and clattering chips. Another sound is the squeaky wheels of housekeeping carts as armies of workers push them up and down long corridors of outsized hotels.þþFor now, the carts are rolling, a sure sign that life is normal in a town swelled by seekers of fun and fortune. But that might not be the case in 10 days, and that has Las Vegas on edge.þþFor the first time in 18 years, the city is bracing for a strike at major hotels, and women like Ofelia Chavarin, a housekeeper at the Mirage hotel for a decade, are at the center of it — downright sore, they say, and unwilling to take it anymore.þþHousekeepers make up the largest part of the city's biggest hotel union, about 20 percent of the 45,000-member Culinary Workers, Local 226. The others are cooks, dishwashers, waiters, porters, bellhops and casino change makers. Together, they constitute the invisible force of hotel and casino service workers who help make sure people keep coming back here to lose their money.þþUnion contracts with many of the largest hotels expire at the end of the month, and last week, members voted overwhelmingly to strike if new agreements were not reached in time. When that last happened, in 1984, workers struck for 67 days at considerable cost. þþWhile everything about Las Vegas was smaller then — fewer hotels, guests and union members — 17,000 workers walked out, leading to $75 million in lost wages and twice that in lost tourism and gambling revenue. Assaults and bombings led to hundreds of arrests.þþOn Monday, city bus drivers staged a strike over wages that is not expected to last long. But if another hotel strike occurs, both sides could suffer huge financial losses. No one is predicting violence, probably because people like Ms. Chavarin, 58, say they are just too tired.þþAfter the terrorist attacks last September, tourism here dropped about 10 percent, leading the hotels to lay off thousands of workers. Since then, occupancy rates have steadily improved, but not all the workers have been brought back. Union members on the job say that has left them with greater workloads. The housekeepers have more rooms to clean, putting them on a breakneck schedule to meet a daily quota or face losing their jobs.þþÿI don't even drink water any more during the day,ÿ Ms. Chavarin said as she and other union members discussed their grievances. ÿThat way, I don't have to go to the bathroom. If I do, I lose 10 minutes.ÿþþAt the center of negotiations are two issues: Union members want hotels to continue paying for all health care benefits for the workers and their families, and they want lighter workloads. þþNo one is arguing over wages. Union members can make $12 an hour and more, plus tips, which goes a long way in Las Vegas. Here, housing costs are still low enough that many union members own their own homes and cars and pay for their children to attend college.þþÿNobody's going to get rich,ÿ said Michael Sloan, senior vice president for the Mandalay Resort Group, one of five hotel groups negotiating with the union. ÿIt's tough work. But if you're going to do it, this is the place to do it. You get paid more and the health benefits are better.ÿþþUnion leaders do not disagree. But it is just as important, they argue, that people like Ms. Chavarin do not go home in physical discomfort.þþÿWhen I started this job, I was healthy,ÿ Ms. Chavarin said before ticking off a list of what she described as job-related ailments, including asthma, colitis, tendinitis, high blood pressure, skin disorders and kidney problems from her failure to drink enough water.þþTo say nothing of occupational hazards. D Taylor, the union secretary-treasurer, said that in addition to seeking lighter workloads, the union was asking for contract language to provide extra money for those who had to clean up ÿfeces, blood and vomit,ÿ which housekeepers say they find regularly.þþÿOne of those rockers said on MTV that if you have never trashed a room, you have never been to Las Vegas,ÿ said Joyce Lewis, 58, a housekeeper at Mandalay Bay.þþRosemary Garcia, 39, who has worked at the Luxor for five years, said she often cleaned rooms where children put their hands, ÿcovered with candy, food and ketchup,ÿ over walls, windows and other surfaces.þþThen there are those rooms in which the occupants get high on drugs. Ms. Chavarin recalled once walking into a haze of fresh marijuana smoke.þþÿI like to finish those rooms first,ÿ she said, laughing. ÿThe rest of the day, I have no pain.ÿþþ
Source: NY Times
