Union reports sexual harassment of workers in Las Vegas casinos

A Las Vegas union which is threatening a strike Wednesday issued a survey saying that sexual harassment on the job so frequent among its constituents that members often feel uncomfortable at work.

According to the survey conducted by the Culinary Union, the largest union in state of Nevada, 59 percent of cocktail servers and 27 percent of hotel housekeepers said they had been sexually harassed by guests, managers or others while on the job.

Meanwhile, 72 percent of cocktail servers and 53 percent of housekeepers who are working in in 34 hotel-casinos in Las Vegas downtown said a guest "had done something to make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe" .

More than 10,000 Las Vegas casino workers took part in the survey, said the Culinary Union, who has 50,000 members and most of them are female.

The Culinary Union wanted all employees required to enter hotel rooms to be equipped with safety buttons that would immediately notify security in the event of an emergency. The union says MGM and Caesars, the two largest casino operators on Las Vegas Boulevard, have responded positively to that request.

Union leaders also called on customers to respect those workers. The group said it will distribute leaflets at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport on its survey results and will ask visitors who sign on the leaflets to guarantee that they will "not sexually harass Las Vegas casino workers."

"We are pleased on the progress in discussions with the companies about sexual harassment and safety," union Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline said in a statement posted on its official website. "We want to make sure Las Vegas visitors know they have to respect casino workers and they cannot abuse them."

The survey came one week after 25,000 members of the union voted with 99 percent approval to go on strike as early as Friday morning if a new five-year contract isn't reached with the 34 casinos operators.

The last walkout in Las Vegas came back in 1984.