Hundreds of Las Vegas Culinary Union members are protesting their own union over health plan changes

Between 100 and 200 members of Culinary Workers Union Local 226 have been showing up each week to protest outside their own union’s Las Vegas headquarters since late August, The Nevada Independent reported. They are objecting to a new health care policy and to how an upcoming raise will be structured.

The union represents more than 60,000 hotel and casino workers in Nevada. The Independent described it as one of the state’s largest and most politically influential unions and said the protests are some of the most visible signs of discontent in its ranks in years. A group calling itself the Fair Union Reform Movement 226 organized the demonstrations. Organizers told FOX5 Las Vegas that more than 2,000 petition signatures call for financial transparency on health funds and on how raises are distributed.

The health plan change took effect in September. Adult members can now choose primary care doctors based at the union’s four health centers, which provide care at no charge, along with dental, vision, physical therapy and lab testing. Members can keep their outside primary care providers, but those providers are now out-of-network and carry higher fees, the Independent reported.

Union leaders say the plan gives families free coverage with no monthly premiums, copays or deductibles, and that the four centers now have more than 90 primary care providers. A union spokesperson told FOX5 that the average time to see a preferred doctor is 10 days. The fourth center, a facility of nearly 99,000 square feet, opened in August.

Some protesters say they do not want to be moved. “We feel like we are being manipulated and not allowed to make our own choices regarding healthcare,” said Rodolfo Valle, who works at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and is a former shop steward. Blanca Moreno, a cleaner at Caesars Palace who has battled cancer, said she believes the policy will force her to leave the primary care doctor who has managed her treatment. At a Thursday protest, worker Charles Pierre told FOX5, “60,000 members into four clinics. There’s no way you’re going to get a timely visit to a doctor.”

Blanca Rugerio, who works at Resorts World Las Vegas, said she paid about $2,000 for an emergency room visit after her new primary care doctor was delayed in getting her a referral. She also said reduced shifts can make it harder to qualify for coverage. Workers generally must work about 30 hours a week to qualify, the Independent reported, and those who fall short can still obtain benefits by paying the health fund at the rate employers pay.

The raise is a second point of dispute. Most members are scheduled to receive one starting Oct. 1. Its size has not been settled, and it will come out of a $1.55 hourly increase in benefits that also covers health care and pensions. Some members have circulated a graphic online suggesting that $1.06 of the $1.55 would go to the health and welfare fund. The union says the graphic is outdated and shows a worst-case scenario.

The increase stems from five-year contracts negotiated by Culinary and Bartenders Local 165 with dozens of Las Vegas resort operators over 2023 and part of 2024. The union says the 10 percent first-year raises were the largest in its 89-year history and that the average worker, who earned about $28 an hour including health and pension benefits under the previous contract, will earn $37 an hour by the end of the deal. “A big chunk of the money that we won for this year is going to have to go to healthcare,” Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said. Sebastian Espinoza, a Caesars Palace worker who served on the negotiating committee, said Medicaid cuts by the Trump administration had exacerbated rising costs.

Leadership rejects the protesters’ characterization. “You have a few hundred folks out of 60,000 that want to run the union,” Pappageorge told The Nevada Independent. He said the movement is led by disaffected members spreading misinformation, and that he has not met with organizers. He said organizers are part of the 15 percent who voted against the administration in May. One organizer, Donna Kelly, ran against Culinary Union President Diana Valles this year and lost. Kelly said the members who asked her to run were unsatisfied with leadership. “The members should be first, and that’s where I believe myself that the union has lost their way,” she said.

In a statement to FOX5, Pappageorge said a majority of members have received more than $5 an hour in raises since November 2023 and will receive another increase on Oct. 1, 2026.