Striking Detroit casino workers are part of the Detroit Casino Council, which includes UNITE HERE Local 24. The Culinary is also a UNITE HERE affiliate.
Some Detroit workers were in Las Vegas Monday to show solidarity. Jamil Johnson, who has worked for MGM Grand in Detroit for 16 years, said that they want “economic justice,” reiterating the Culinary’s union’s slogan that “one job should be enough” to survive.
“We are the workers who helped these companies weather the storm of the pandemic,” he said. “They have made boatloads on the backs of our hard work. We just want our fair share.”
In addition to Wednesday’s rally, the union also that 75 workers will participate in “civil disobedience” by disrupting traffic as a form of nonviolent protest.
“Our goal is to send a message to these companies that they aren’t going down the right path. Of course nobody wants a strike,” Pappageorge said. “At the end of the day there has to be recognition that these companies only made it through the pandemic because of these workers. Now the idea that they are going to be shortchanged while companies are setting record profits is unacceptable.”