WEBVTT
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It's 1886 and the Gilded Age is in full swing.
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This was a time before capitalism was synonymous with America.
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On May 1st, 1886, unions organized a massive walk-off, encompassing 13,000 businesses across the country.
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350,000 workers walked off the job.
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New York and Texas, Detroit and Pennsylvania.
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In that decade, thousands were working 10 to 16 hours a day.
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Thousands of people were dying each year while on the job in miserable, macabre, and avoidable accidents.
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On May 3rd in Chicago, strikebreakers shot four strikers in their backs.
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The next day, four more people were killed.
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And finally the next day, a bomb went off in Haymarket Square.
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Eight were arrested with no evidence against them.
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Four were hanged, one died by suicide, and three others spent years in prison.
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May 1st is International Workers' Day.
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It's a day of recognition.
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Recognizing how far we've come, and at the same moment, recognizing how far we have left to go.
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How did we achieve the good things we have?
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Working on answering those questions?
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Unite here, a labor union with sensible slogans.
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That health care is a human right.
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That one job should be enough.
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We shouldn't be working 10 to 16 hours a day, two, three, four jobs.
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That CEO should not be making 280 times as much as the average employee when the ratio was 20 to 1 in 1950.
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That 45,000 people a year should not be dying because they're working but receive no health insurance.
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Representing over 300,000 U.S.
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and Canadian workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries, United here is made up of predominantly women and people of color.
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They are building a movement to enable people of all backgrounds to achieve greater equality and opportunity.
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A person can be calm, genuine, modest, and hardworking and still demand dignity.
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That's what culinary worker Heather proves.
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Heather simply demands dignity.
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Her brothers and sisters in Unite here local 226 at her side.
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The union helps provide protections against wage theft, deception, sexual harassment, overworking, and illegal retribution.
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These protections help Heather to be herself, a woman that simply works hard and helps people.
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She is a reminder that together we have the power to change our lives.
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Heather works as a food runner and buster in a unionized casino restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip.
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She's been a culinary union member and shop steward for five years.
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Having experienced low wages, harassment, and insecurity in non-union restaurants, she knows firsthand how the union difference, strong contracts, guaranteed benefits, and job protections can change lives.
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Heather spends her time on and off the clock defending her coworkers' rights, and she is currently canvassing with her union to get out the vote in Nevada ahead of the primary election.
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So happy May Day to all of you and welcome to Heather.
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Hey Heather, to start off, tell us what are some of the jobs you've had in your career?
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Oh gosh.
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I started in fast food, I've done um fine dining, I've um sold insurance, I've worked retail, um, I was doing finance, um, selling mutual funds.
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Um then I went back to restaurants, to bartending, um, and moved to Vegas, and now I'm a food runner and busser at a restaurant on the strip.
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Cool.
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So what got you into the restaurant industry and in Las Vegas?
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Um, I always liked restaurants, just um serving people and people are in a good mood and food and fast-paced, and I always just liked the work, honestly.
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Are you from Las Vegas originally?
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Uh my parents actually moved here, and I kind of always, you know, Vegas and I work in restaurants.
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I was like, I should move there, probably do really well, make a lot of money.
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Um, I heard found out there was a union and I've always liked unions, but I thought I'd have to be a plumber or a carpenter or something.
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Um I was like, oh, there's a culinary union and it's hospitality, like I can work in a restaurant and get a pension and have insurance and all these job securities just to work in a restaurant.
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Like that was crazy to be.
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So yeah, I just when I moved here, I was like, wow, I need to join the culinary union.
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Could you walk us through uh a typical day where it starts, how it goes?
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Um well, I'm actually a shop steward in the union.
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So if I have sometimes I'll have meetings before my actual job.
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Um, like if the manager disciplines somebody, or if we think the contract's being broken, um, like on my volunteer time, I'll come in a little early.
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We'll have a meeting about whatever the issue is, um, if we can fix it or what we can do.
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Um, then I'll actually clock in and then start.
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I'll be either a busser or a food runner, and I just bus tables all night, or I run food, and you know, do that for eight hours and then clock out at the end, and that's my day.
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Oh, that's so cool that you're a shop steward too.
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That's such an important, valuable role being that liaison between workers and uh the the management, the bosses.
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What kind of skills do you think are needed for someone in that role, but also in in your uh other culinary role as well?
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Multitasking and just talking to people and kind of being ready for anything.
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Um, because we're on the Vegas Strip, we're a large restaurant, we're very fast-paced, very busy.
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Um we have travelers from all over the world.
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So you just kind of need to be ready for anything and um just be very flexible.
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And sometimes I'm a busser cleaning tables, but then I need to be a food runner, but then maybe I need to go get drinks, or there's kind of just different things and just kind of being up for anything, I guess.
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One of my favorite things about the restaurant industry, hospitality in general, is the regulars, people who you get to know their name, their their favorite thing that they like to order, or whatever, their personality.
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Do you get to interact with some regulars in in your role?
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Um, it's actually pretty cool.
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We'll have some people that come to Vegas like three or four times a year.
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So we'll see them just you know, three or four times a year and we'll recognize them, but they live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania or California.
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And so we still have regulars, but they're not like local regulars, if that makes sense.
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But then we do have local regulars too, actually.
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There's like a couple from Canada that we see a couple times a year.
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Um and our California visitors, but um they've come they're coming a little bit less, which is kind of sad.
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Why do you think that is?
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Honestly, just our um our government policies right now, the economy.
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Um, everyone's just spending less, taking less vacations.
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So we're just yeah, seeing people less.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Anytime I go to a store that I haven't been to in a while, I'm like stunned looking at these prices.
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Uh gas is crazy now with the Iran war, uh, which is uh disturbing.
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Uh house prices, it's unbelievable.
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And these food prices are simply not sustainable for people.
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Right, right.
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What's one of the harder things about your job?
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I mean, it sounds pretty easy.
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It's just busting tables or renting food.
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Um but a lot of work goes into it.
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You know, I take 25,000 steps a night.
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Oh wow.
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It's just it is a hard work.
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It's a lot of work.
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Um it sounds kind of easy, but once you're actually into it.
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25,000 steps is is absolutely no joke.
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Um, yeah, it's pretty fast paced and like non-stop.
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What's your favorite thing or one of the best things about your work?
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Um, I think when you can just make someone's night, you're just like serving customers and it's their birthday, or you know, they saved up money to come to Vegas, it's their first time.
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Just whatever you can like make special for them, I think is the best part for me.
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How long have you been in this role for?
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I've just been doing this for five years.
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Okay, about five, five, six years ago, that was uh COVID time.
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What was that like?
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Yeah, I came in um right after COVID, so we um saw the business kind of pick up when the economy, you know, slowly, slowly recovered.
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And then yeah, business just expanded.
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We're a popular restaurant, so we're just really busy.
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And it's like things were going really well, and then everything just kind of now it's going downhill.
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We're you know, we're lucky we're a popular restaurant, but I see all the other restaurants on the strip and in my casino, they're cutting hours, they have less business, they're doing layoffs.
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Um, so we're just you know, we're lucky where we're at, but we kind of see what everyone else is, and even our business has kind of gone down.
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But everyone's just yeah, kind of making the best they can, and we're lucky to have good jobs that we do.
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What are some of the benefits of being in a culinary union like uh Unite Here?
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The restaurant industry, I mean, we have it really lucky because we're union here.
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Um, the restaurant industry as a whole, for most states, they only pay people like$2 an hour.
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Um, it's very exploitative to the front of house and back of house.
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Um a lot of undocumented labor they'll take advantage of.
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That's you know, the restaurant industry.
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I worked in different states too.
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Um but then moving here, I see whether it's union and you know, I have defined roles.
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I'm not doing eight different jobs a night.
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It's um it's very less stressful.
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I can take care of my family, I have good benefits.
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But um, you know, working in restaurants in other states, I just see the exploitation and it's hard, yeah.
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So tell us more about Unite here, your union.
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I think 300,000 people nationally and a big contingent in Vegas.
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We've started in 1935.
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Um, all the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip are unionized with us.
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We have about 60,000 members currently.
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Um, we have a pension, we have guaranteed job security, we get raises every year.
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Um, we cover housekeepers, restaurant workers, cooks, cleaners, um, pretty much everyone's hospitality in the casinos.
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One concern I heard about for casino workers is the customer smoking.
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It can, when you walk into a casino, there it can be a uh a smell of smoking uh because it is one of the few types of restaurants or public uh places where smoking is allowed, uh both in Atlantic City, uh, in New Jersey where I'm from, and Vegas.
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Yeah, I don't know like the specifics, what we've done with it.
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Um, like personally, I don't like smoking.
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I won't be a cocktail server because I don't want to breathe in cigarette smoke.
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Um we do have some casinos on the strip that are non-smoking.
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Um I think it is very bad for our health and our members, the older ones, they are feeling it from breathing in the cigarette smoke.
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Um it's a huge, I think it'd be a huge, huge legal battle, a huge issue.
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Um maybe one day, yeah, hopefully we can take on that fight, but there's a lot of fights going on.
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What types of issues or grievances or actions have you and your union been uh interested in or involved in?
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Yeah, we do have a couple of different things going on.
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Um one thing is Allegiance Stadium where the Raiders play.
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Um it's non-union.
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Um we've been trying, it's been like almost 10 years now since they started building it to um get a card check to make it union.
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We do pickets all the time.
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We've turned in um petitions with signatures, um, and just like letting all our workers know to support them.
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That's one of our fights.
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Then we also have um stations casinos, we've been fighting them for a very long time.
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Yeah, they're owned by the Fertita family.
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Um, so they don't like the union, obviously, so they've been fighting us a long time.
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Um so we do picket them, we do leaflets, we kind of have all our battles going on, and we all kind of take turns and help each other out and show up and support each other in our different fights.
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With Las Vegas being such a city of growth over the course of the last 30 years, but even uh exceptionally uh in the last five, ten years, it's excellent that you are working on establishing a precedent of worker rights and what businesses should expect with uh dealing with workers uh in the future.
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And you're in such a busy environment.
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How do you deal with stress at work with so many customers?
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Uh we just do what we can if you know the customer's piling up, if the line's getting long.
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It's kind of on our managers to manage that.
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You know, we're only going to work so fast and we're not gonna be like, okay, everyone hurry, hurry, hurry, and you know, break your body and risk your safety or any like we don't do that to meet the end's needs.
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If our if there's a problem going on, you know, I look to the managers like, hey, what's time it better, or they need to figure it out so that we're not all freaking out just to make it work.
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Yeah, some managers they may be uh pretty useless in in their help or their suggestions, like, oh, just go faster, figure it out.
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So that's excellent that they have you there to uh demand uh dignity and demand what you deserve.
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What else do you do as a shop steward?
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Uh so I like enforce the contract if I see like management's doing something incorrectly.
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Um I just let them know, hey, this is incorrect, we should do it this way.
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Um or if it's bigger, we might have to have a meeting about it.
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Um if they discipline someone, um I could we can have a meeting about that and I defend them or correct it.
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Um it's kind of it's almost like the um the managers are like the police, and I'm the um like the Lloyd, the public defender, and then my workers are the people.
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So kind of like the in-between for managers and workers.
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That's an awesome analogy.
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Yeah, that's how it feels, yeah.
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Any examples you can share?
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Um, so we have promotions in our restaurant, everyone wants to be a food server because you make the most money.
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And so our managers in our contract, we do it a certain way by seniority.
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You know, you take a test and if you pass it, it goes to the highest seniority.
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Um, but our managers were cheating on the test.
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Wow, like they weren't doing it, yeah.
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They weren't doing it by seniority, they were just kind of doing it by favorites, who they wanted to do.
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Um, something you would do in a non-union restaurant.
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But um, so we, you know, some of my work some of my coworkers noticed this and I noticed it.
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And so we got together and we came up with a plan, we had a meeting, we took it to the managers, we had to go to their boss, show them the contract, you know, they fought back against it and said, Oh no, we it says this, but it doesn't mean that, it means something else.
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So we say, No, no, no.
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And you know, it's this arguing back and forth at these meetings, but in the end, they're like, Okay, we lost, we have to follow this, you guys are right.
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We're gonna, you know, promote people by seniority, we're gonna follow this testing.
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Um, and so now they do it all correct.
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And that was a huge change, a huge win.
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Everyone was happy because now they know it's not favoritism, we're gonna do it by the book.
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And so that made all the coworkers happy, and so that was really good.
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Nice work, congratulations.
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Thank you.
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Sometimes jobs that are transient or typically historically part-time are difficult to um perform work actions or to unionize to begin with.
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Have you had any struggles with uh that?
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Sometimes, but not too much.
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Um it's actually funny, sometimes we'll get people that are like, oh, I'm just here for six months or just for school or whatever.
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But then they see the money they make, they see the benefits, the job security, um, how we're treated better, and then they end up staying for longer.
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How does it feel to be a union member and a shop steward?
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Um honestly, just because the unions here, it's like if managers talk they don't have to talk to me however they want to.
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Like they have to treat me with respect.
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I can't just be fired for any reason.
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I have benefits.
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I just I walk into work and I feel protected.
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I feel safe and it's like a security, honestly.
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Sometimes in physical jobs, people or jobs that are just exhausting in any way, whether it's physical or mental or both combined, people kind of drift off or go into uh into the zone, or maybe they just kind of disassociate.
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How do you stay uh yourself?
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How do you stay heather um and true to yourself while managing so many different things?
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Um whenever yeah, whenever I'm because I shift into zombie mode once in a while.
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Um I just yeah, honestly, I start talking to the guest.
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Because as a busser or food runner, you don't have to so much.
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You know, I can just drop off the food and say, Oh, here you go.
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Or I can, you know, talk to them, be like, oh, how's your evening going?
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Where are you from?
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Is this your first time here?
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And it they all talk to me back, and it's kind of just picks up a mood and just kind of lifts me up when I just talk to people more.
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So I'll do that often if I yeah feel like that.
00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:53.839
One of my favorite simple things about being in a union is you it's sort of like a brotherhood or a sisterhood, a fraternity, um a friendship and a camaraderie with with so many other people who you can look to for advice who you can be comfortable around and ask questions, ask for help.
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But that doesn't mean that there's still never arguments or disagreements.
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Have you had uh any of those situations where you know you you may have a disagreement with someone or uh an argument with a fellow union member?
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Sure.
00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:10.720
Yeah, um let's see.
00:19:11.120 --> 00:19:17.599
Uh well I'm in a tip pull, so sometimes you know that can create a little bit of mess, but we're all in it together.
00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:27.039
So if someone's, you know, maybe they're um slacking off or just doing whatever, and we feel like you're not part of the team, we'll just kind of talk to them is kind of like a pep talk.
00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:29.519
Just hey, remind, hey, we're all in this together.
00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:38.640
You know, we're in a great restaurant, we have a great job, and we just kind of give them like a little pep talk, hey, we're in a team together, and that just kind of brings people back together.
00:19:39.120 --> 00:19:44.640
A strike is the classic uh but not very common labor action for unions.
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:47.759
What type but there's far more common other ones?
00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:55.039
What types of conflict resolution or work actions have you been part of when dealing with management?
00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:58.880
Um, yeah, honestly, like really just not following the contract.
00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:08.079
Kind of like I said earlier, where I'll show them the contract, it's plain black and white, you can read it, and they're like, no, no, this is wrong, no.
00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:11.440
File a grievance, I go to grievance, you know, da-da-da.
00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:13.599
File arbitration, no, no.
00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:21.279
Like that's the worst when you have it and they're just they don't want to budge, they don't want to negotiate with you or meet with you, or that's the worst.
00:20:21.360 --> 00:20:37.279
So then we have to get creative, we have to do like delegations, or there was one day where a bunch of us, we call it a forced early out, where we work half our shift and we tell the manager, hey, we have to go, and they charge us like an attendance point, but they have to let us leave.
00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:40.079
And so we did that one day as a protest.
00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:45.440
Uh so imagine you're at work and you get an emergency or you're sick or something happens and you have to leave.
00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:49.360
We have attendance points, so they'll just take away half your attendance points.
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:52.480
But it's kind of no questions asked, you just get to leave.
00:20:52.880 --> 00:21:00.000
So if all of us, you know, we're in a tip pool, we're all together, and we'll say, hey, this is you know, this is making us mad, the managers aren't doing anything.
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:05.200
Right now, if 10 of us leave, the restaurant's gonna, you know, have problems.
00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:09.120
Managers are gonna take us seriously, they're gonna fix our issue.
00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:10.799
Um, so that's what we've done before.
00:21:11.120 --> 00:21:15.039
And the restaurant can't run without you, so you can effectively shut it down.
00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:19.519
And if not shut it down completely, make a a a big statement.
00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:20.000
Right.
00:21:20.079 --> 00:21:22.880
That's the most, yeah, the best tool we have is ourselves.
00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:25.360
What do you do to decompress after work?
00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:29.200
Uh I exercise, drink tea, take a bath.
00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:32.640
So you're not spending uh a lot of time gambling yourself?
00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:33.920
I don't, no.
00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:35.519
I just I treat it as gaming.
00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:40.079
If I gamble maybe like twice a year, I'll just treat it as fun, but yeah, I don't.
00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:45.759
Where do you think your leadership experience uh will take you in the future?
00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:58.480
Um no, I like working for the union, um like the shop steward work that I do, um, and then once in a while I'll take a leave of absence and they'll kind of train me more on how to be an organizer or just do more things with the union.
00:21:58.559 --> 00:22:00.319
Um and honestly, I love doing that.
00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:04.640
I love helping people and showing people that they're strong and you have power.
00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:09.279
Um so honestly, I want to do that, just become like a full-time union organizer.
00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:10.240
Really, yeah.
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:17.440
Do customers ever share with you stories of their own uh adventures in gambling in Las Vegas?
00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:22.400
Um, I mean you'll hear like, oh, I'm up a couple thousand, I lost a couple thousand.
00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:23.839
Um That's pretty good.
00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:24.480
That's pretty big.
00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:30.079
There's yeah, there's some very um wealthy people that come here and lose a little, it's not it's nothing to them.
00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:34.559
But yeah, I don't we don't really hear about any giant wins or giant losses.
00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:46.880
With Las Vegas being a party city with so many tourists and drink a lot of drinking and gambling, are there any uh dangers that you have to be um aware of or you know, anticipate?
00:22:47.360 --> 00:22:51.360
Yeah, and then we're lucky we have security, so we'll call them right away.
00:22:51.440 --> 00:23:03.279
Um sometimes they can be a little slow, but we'll just, you know, like I said, we're gonna teamwork, so if there's an unruly guest, it's not like we're just gonna leave one person to deal with it until security happen shows up.
00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:09.039
We all kind of help each other, we call security and the managers step in and we know with security.
00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:16.799
Because in the past I worked, you know, in outside restaurants and you don't have security, so you know, as a bartender, I become like my own security.
00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:26.799
What would you say to someone who said that raising the minimum wage, fighting for union power, the Those things are not good for people.
00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:30.480
They just cost more money and make everything more expensive for people.
00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:31.839
What would you say?
00:23:32.319 --> 00:23:36.160
It's the I mean the corporations, their profit margins are still the same.
00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:38.160
They're they want to take the profits.
00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:39.920
It's not the union wages.
00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:42.880
It's um the people at the top taking more and more.
00:23:43.120 --> 00:23:43.920
Like the 1%.
00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:52.240
And we yeah, the union wages, it's so we can have a standard of living, which we barely even have anymore with groceries and gas.
00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:56.319
But it's the the people at the bottom, they want us to fight each other, the working class.
00:23:56.559 --> 00:23:59.120
We need to fight the people at the top.
00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:02.160
Heather, you worked there for about five years.
00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:11.200
You've helped probably hundreds or even thousands of guests enjoying their time, making their trip fun and relaxing.
00:24:11.360 --> 00:24:13.920
You've also helped your co-workers as shop steward.
00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:15.920
What's something that you're proud about?
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:31.759
Honestly, when I got hired and started working at the casino in a union job, um, because I worked in non-union restaurants and you um you make less than minimum wage, you put up with sexual harassment, discrimination.
00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:34.640
Um every day is just like it's awful.
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:38.960
There's no benefits, there's no security, you're just treated like trash, honestly.
00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:44.720
Um, and so getting hired here, like I like I almost want to cry right now how thankful I am.
00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:57.759
Just everything I have, and it's thanks to the union and all the work that they do and the fighting that they do, and that's why I'm want to join it and be a part of it and continue it, because it made such a difference in my life.
00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:03.920
And that really like that's the moment for me, like my career change where oh, I don't want to work in a restaurant forever.
00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:07.039
I want to be an organizer, I want to help more people.
00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:10.559
Um, you know, that's like my purpose in life is helping people.
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:13.599
So that was like a really great moment for me.
00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:15.279
Well said.
00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:18.799
Well, Heather, thank you so much for having this conversation with me.
00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:19.839
I enjoyed it.
00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:22.240
Thank you, you too.
00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:27.439
It's 1886 and the Gilded Age is in full swing.
00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:31.040
This was a time before capitalism was synonymous with America.
00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:39.200
On May 1st, 1886, unions organized a massive walk-off, encompassing 13,000 businesses across the country.
00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:42.320
350,000 workers walked off the job.
00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:45.359
New York and Texas, Detroit and Pennsylvania.
00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:49.520
In that decade, thousands were working 10 to 16 hours a day.
00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:55.439
Thousands of people were dying each year while on the job in miserable, macabre, and avoidable accidents.
00:01:55.600 --> 00:01:59.680
On May 3rd in Chicago, strikebreakers shot four strikers in their backs.
00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.080
The next day, four more people were killed.
00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:05.680
And finally the next day, a bomb went off in Haymarket Square.
00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:08.240
Eight were arrested with no evidence against them.
00:02:08.480 --> 00:02:13.120
Four were hanged, one died by suicide, and three others spent years in prison.
00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:15.680
May 1st is International Workers' Day.
00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:17.120
It's a day of recognition.
00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:22.240
Recognizing how far we've come, and at the same moment, recognizing how far we have left to go.
00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:24.400
How did we achieve the good things we have?
00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:26.319
Working on answering those questions?
00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:29.840
Unite here, a labor union with sensible slogans.
00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:31.920
That health care is a human right.
00:02:32.079 --> 00:02:33.439
That one job should be enough.
00:02:33.600 --> 00:02:37.280
We shouldn't be working 10 to 16 hours a day, two, three, four jobs.
00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:45.199
That CEO should not be making 280 times as much as the average employee when the ratio was 20 to 1 in 1950.
00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:51.759
That 45,000 people a year should not be dying because they're working but receive no health insurance.
00:02:52.079 --> 00:02:54.319
Representing over 300,000 U.S.
00:02:54.400 --> 00:03:07.600
and Canadian workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries, United here is made up of predominantly women and people of color.
00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:13.680
They are building a movement to enable people of all backgrounds to achieve greater equality and opportunity.
00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:19.840
A person can be calm, genuine, modest, and hardworking and still demand dignity.
00:03:20.079 --> 00:03:22.480
That's what culinary worker Heather proves.
00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:24.560
Heather simply demands dignity.
00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:29.040
Her brothers and sisters in Unite here local 226 at her side.
00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:37.439
The union helps provide protections against wage theft, deception, sexual harassment, overworking, and illegal retribution.
00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:42.639
These protections help Heather to be herself, a woman that simply works hard and helps people.
00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:45.759
She is a reminder that together we have the power to change our lives.
00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:50.959
Heather works as a food runner and buster in a unionized casino restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip.
00:03:51.040 --> 00:03:54.319
She's been a culinary union member and shop steward for five years.
00:03:54.560 --> 00:04:06.240
Having experienced low wages, harassment, and insecurity in non-union restaurants, she knows firsthand how the union difference, strong contracts, guaranteed benefits, and job protections can change lives.
00:04:06.480 --> 00:04:15.040
Heather spends her time on and off the clock defending her coworkers' rights, and she is currently canvassing with her union to get out the vote in Nevada ahead of the primary election.
00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:18.560
So happy May Day to all of you and welcome to Heather.
00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:23.199
Hey Heather, to start off, tell us what are some of the jobs you've had in your career?
00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:24.319
Oh gosh.
00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:38.560
I started in fast food, I've done um fine dining, I've um sold insurance, I've worked retail, um, I was doing finance, um, selling mutual funds.
00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:47.360
Um then I went back to restaurants, to bartending, um, and moved to Vegas, and now I'm a food runner and busser at a restaurant on the strip.
00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:48.000
Cool.
00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:51.759
So what got you into the restaurant industry and in Las Vegas?
00:04:52.079 --> 00:05:02.079
Um, I always liked restaurants, just um serving people and people are in a good mood and food and fast-paced, and I always just liked the work, honestly.
00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:04.639
Are you from Las Vegas originally?
00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:10.480
Uh my parents actually moved here, and I kind of always, you know, Vegas and I work in restaurants.
00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:14.000
I was like, I should move there, probably do really well, make a lot of money.
00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:22.000
Um, I heard found out there was a union and I've always liked unions, but I thought I'd have to be a plumber or a carpenter or something.
00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:33.199
Um I was like, oh, there's a culinary union and it's hospitality, like I can work in a restaurant and get a pension and have insurance and all these job securities just to work in a restaurant.
00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:34.800
Like that was crazy to be.
00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:39.199
So yeah, I just when I moved here, I was like, wow, I need to join the culinary union.
00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:43.600
Could you walk us through uh a typical day where it starts, how it goes?
00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:46.480
Um well, I'm actually a shop steward in the union.
00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:50.240
So if I have sometimes I'll have meetings before my actual job.
00:05:50.400 --> 00:05:58.240
Um, like if the manager disciplines somebody, or if we think the contract's being broken, um, like on my volunteer time, I'll come in a little early.
00:05:58.400 --> 00:06:03.040
We'll have a meeting about whatever the issue is, um, if we can fix it or what we can do.
00:06:03.200 --> 00:06:06.160
Um, then I'll actually clock in and then start.
00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:15.680
I'll be either a busser or a food runner, and I just bus tables all night, or I run food, and you know, do that for eight hours and then clock out at the end, and that's my day.
00:06:16.080 --> 00:06:18.160
Oh, that's so cool that you're a shop steward too.
00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:25.680
That's such an important, valuable role being that liaison between workers and uh the the management, the bosses.
00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:32.879
What kind of skills do you think are needed for someone in that role, but also in in your uh other culinary role as well?
00:06:33.520 --> 00:06:38.480
Multitasking and just talking to people and kind of being ready for anything.
00:06:38.640 --> 00:06:44.080
Um, because we're on the Vegas Strip, we're a large restaurant, we're very fast-paced, very busy.
00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:46.879
Um we have travelers from all over the world.
00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:51.200
So you just kind of need to be ready for anything and um just be very flexible.
00:06:51.280 --> 00:07:02.240
And sometimes I'm a busser cleaning tables, but then I need to be a food runner, but then maybe I need to go get drinks, or there's kind of just different things and just kind of being up for anything, I guess.
00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:14.000
One of my favorite things about the restaurant industry, hospitality in general, is the regulars, people who you get to know their name, their their favorite thing that they like to order, or whatever, their personality.
00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:17.920
Do you get to interact with some regulars in in your role?
00:07:18.400 --> 00:07:19.759
Um, it's actually pretty cool.
00:07:19.840 --> 00:07:23.520
We'll have some people that come to Vegas like three or four times a year.
00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:31.280
So we'll see them just you know, three or four times a year and we'll recognize them, but they live in New Jersey or Pennsylvania or California.
00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:36.560
And so we still have regulars, but they're not like local regulars, if that makes sense.
00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:39.120
But then we do have local regulars too, actually.
00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.800
There's like a couple from Canada that we see a couple times a year.
00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:50.000
Um and our California visitors, but um they've come they're coming a little bit less, which is kind of sad.
00:07:50.640 --> 00:07:52.160
Why do you think that is?
00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:57.040
Honestly, just our um our government policies right now, the economy.
00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:00.400
Um, everyone's just spending less, taking less vacations.
00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:02.720
So we're just yeah, seeing people less.
00:08:03.200 --> 00:08:03.840
Yeah, exactly.
00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:08.720
Anytime I go to a store that I haven't been to in a while, I'm like stunned looking at these prices.
00:08:08.960 --> 00:08:15.920
Uh gas is crazy now with the Iran war, uh, which is uh disturbing.
00:08:16.080 --> 00:08:18.640
Uh house prices, it's unbelievable.
00:08:18.960 --> 00:08:22.160
And these food prices are simply not sustainable for people.
00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:23.360
Right, right.
00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:26.160
What's one of the harder things about your job?
00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:27.920
I mean, it sounds pretty easy.
00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:30.640
It's just busting tables or renting food.
00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:33.279
Um but a lot of work goes into it.
00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:35.679
You know, I take 25,000 steps a night.
00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:36.480
Oh wow.
00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:38.319
It's just it is a hard work.
00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:39.360
It's a lot of work.
00:08:39.439 --> 00:08:42.319
Um it sounds kind of easy, but once you're actually into it.
00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:46.080
25,000 steps is is absolutely no joke.
00:08:46.319 --> 00:08:49.279
Um, yeah, it's pretty fast paced and like non-stop.
00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:53.120
What's your favorite thing or one of the best things about your work?
00:08:53.360 --> 00:09:02.000
Um, I think when you can just make someone's night, you're just like serving customers and it's their birthday, or you know, they saved up money to come to Vegas, it's their first time.
00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:06.319
Just whatever you can like make special for them, I think is the best part for me.
00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:08.799
How long have you been in this role for?
00:09:09.439 --> 00:09:11.439
I've just been doing this for five years.
00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:17.200
Okay, about five, five, six years ago, that was uh COVID time.
00:09:17.439 --> 00:09:18.639
What was that like?
00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:28.559
Yeah, I came in um right after COVID, so we um saw the business kind of pick up when the economy, you know, slowly, slowly recovered.
00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:30.559
And then yeah, business just expanded.
00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:33.439
We're a popular restaurant, so we're just really busy.
00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:38.720
And it's like things were going really well, and then everything just kind of now it's going downhill.
00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:49.120
We're you know, we're lucky we're a popular restaurant, but I see all the other restaurants on the strip and in my casino, they're cutting hours, they have less business, they're doing layoffs.
00:09:49.439 --> 00:09:57.120
Um, so we're just you know, we're lucky where we're at, but we kind of see what everyone else is, and even our business has kind of gone down.
00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:02.800
But everyone's just yeah, kind of making the best they can, and we're lucky to have good jobs that we do.
00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:07.759
What are some of the benefits of being in a culinary union like uh Unite Here?
00:10:08.560 --> 00:10:12.800
The restaurant industry, I mean, we have it really lucky because we're union here.
00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:18.960
Um, the restaurant industry as a whole, for most states, they only pay people like$2 an hour.
00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:23.519
Um, it's very exploitative to the front of house and back of house.
00:10:23.680 --> 00:10:27.600
Um a lot of undocumented labor they'll take advantage of.
00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:29.680
That's you know, the restaurant industry.
00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:31.360
I worked in different states too.
00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:37.279
Um but then moving here, I see whether it's union and you know, I have defined roles.
00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:40.560
I'm not doing eight different jobs a night.
00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:42.560
It's um it's very less stressful.
00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:45.600
I can take care of my family, I have good benefits.
00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:52.159
But um, you know, working in restaurants in other states, I just see the exploitation and it's hard, yeah.
00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:54.879
So tell us more about Unite here, your union.
00:10:55.039 --> 00:11:00.000
I think 300,000 people nationally and a big contingent in Vegas.
00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.039
We've started in 1935.
00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:08.240
Um, all the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip are unionized with us.
00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:11.600
We have about 60,000 members currently.
00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:17.920
Um, we have a pension, we have guaranteed job security, we get raises every year.
00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:27.440
Um, we cover housekeepers, restaurant workers, cooks, cleaners, um, pretty much everyone's hospitality in the casinos.
00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:34.240
One concern I heard about for casino workers is the customer smoking.
00:11:34.560 --> 00:11:49.840
It can, when you walk into a casino, there it can be a uh a smell of smoking uh because it is one of the few types of restaurants or public uh places where smoking is allowed, uh both in Atlantic City, uh, in New Jersey where I'm from, and Vegas.
00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:53.759
Yeah, I don't know like the specifics, what we've done with it.
00:11:53.920 --> 00:11:56.800
Um, like personally, I don't like smoking.
00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.960
I won't be a cocktail server because I don't want to breathe in cigarette smoke.
00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:04.800
Um we do have some casinos on the strip that are non-smoking.
00:12:05.039 --> 00:12:12.080
Um I think it is very bad for our health and our members, the older ones, they are feeling it from breathing in the cigarette smoke.
00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:17.440
Um it's a huge, I think it'd be a huge, huge legal battle, a huge issue.
00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:23.600
Um maybe one day, yeah, hopefully we can take on that fight, but there's a lot of fights going on.
00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:32.639
What types of issues or grievances or actions have you and your union been uh interested in or involved in?
00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:35.840
Yeah, we do have a couple of different things going on.
00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:39.440
Um one thing is Allegiance Stadium where the Raiders play.
00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:41.039
Um it's non-union.
00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:49.279
Um we've been trying, it's been like almost 10 years now since they started building it to um get a card check to make it union.
00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:50.960
We do pickets all the time.
00:12:51.039 --> 00:12:58.080
We've turned in um petitions with signatures, um, and just like letting all our workers know to support them.
00:12:58.320 --> 00:12:59.440
That's one of our fights.
00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:04.560
Then we also have um stations casinos, we've been fighting them for a very long time.
00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:07.600
Yeah, they're owned by the Fertita family.
00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:12.560
Um, so they don't like the union, obviously, so they've been fighting us a long time.
00:13:12.800 --> 00:13:23.680
Um so we do picket them, we do leaflets, we kind of have all our battles going on, and we all kind of take turns and help each other out and show up and support each other in our different fights.
00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:43.680
With Las Vegas being such a city of growth over the course of the last 30 years, but even uh exceptionally uh in the last five, ten years, it's excellent that you are working on establishing a precedent of worker rights and what businesses should expect with uh dealing with workers uh in the future.
00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.920
And you're in such a busy environment.
00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:49.519
How do you deal with stress at work with so many customers?
00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:55.920
Uh we just do what we can if you know the customer's piling up, if the line's getting long.
00:13:56.080 --> 00:13:59.039
It's kind of on our managers to manage that.
00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:10.159
You know, we're only going to work so fast and we're not gonna be like, okay, everyone hurry, hurry, hurry, and you know, break your body and risk your safety or any like we don't do that to meet the end's needs.
00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:20.240
If our if there's a problem going on, you know, I look to the managers like, hey, what's time it better, or they need to figure it out so that we're not all freaking out just to make it work.
00:14:20.560 --> 00:14:28.000
Yeah, some managers they may be uh pretty useless in in their help or their suggestions, like, oh, just go faster, figure it out.
00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:34.560
So that's excellent that they have you there to uh demand uh dignity and demand what you deserve.
00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:37.039
What else do you do as a shop steward?
00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:42.800
Uh so I like enforce the contract if I see like management's doing something incorrectly.
00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:46.720
Um I just let them know, hey, this is incorrect, we should do it this way.
00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:50.240
Um or if it's bigger, we might have to have a meeting about it.
00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:57.600
Um if they discipline someone, um I could we can have a meeting about that and I defend them or correct it.
00:14:58.560 --> 00:15:08.960
Um it's kind of it's almost like the um the managers are like the police, and I'm the um like the Lloyd, the public defender, and then my workers are the people.
00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:12.159
So kind of like the in-between for managers and workers.
00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:14.399
That's an awesome analogy.
00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:16.240
Yeah, that's how it feels, yeah.
00:15:16.560 --> 00:15:18.480
Any examples you can share?
00:15:18.800 --> 00:15:24.720
Um, so we have promotions in our restaurant, everyone wants to be a food server because you make the most money.
00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:29.519
And so our managers in our contract, we do it a certain way by seniority.
00:15:29.680 --> 00:15:33.840
You know, you take a test and if you pass it, it goes to the highest seniority.
00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.639
Um, but our managers were cheating on the test.
00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:38.960
Wow, like they weren't doing it, yeah.
00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:44.639
They weren't doing it by seniority, they were just kind of doing it by favorites, who they wanted to do.
00:15:44.800 --> 00:15:47.680
Um, something you would do in a non-union restaurant.
00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:53.039
But um, so we, you know, some of my work some of my coworkers noticed this and I noticed it.
00:15:53.200 --> 00:16:09.120
And so we got together and we came up with a plan, we had a meeting, we took it to the managers, we had to go to their boss, show them the contract, you know, they fought back against it and said, Oh no, we it says this, but it doesn't mean that, it means something else.
00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:10.879
So we say, No, no, no.
00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:18.320
And you know, it's this arguing back and forth at these meetings, but in the end, they're like, Okay, we lost, we have to follow this, you guys are right.
00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:22.879
We're gonna, you know, promote people by seniority, we're gonna follow this testing.
00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:25.039
Um, and so now they do it all correct.
00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:27.360
And that was a huge change, a huge win.
00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:32.159
Everyone was happy because now they know it's not favoritism, we're gonna do it by the book.
00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:35.279
And so that made all the coworkers happy, and so that was really good.
00:16:35.680 --> 00:16:37.360
Nice work, congratulations.
00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:38.560
Thank you.
00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:50.480
Sometimes jobs that are transient or typically historically part-time are difficult to um perform work actions or to unionize to begin with.
00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:53.039
Have you had any struggles with uh that?
00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:56.159
Sometimes, but not too much.
00:16:56.320 --> 00:17:02.560
Um it's actually funny, sometimes we'll get people that are like, oh, I'm just here for six months or just for school or whatever.
00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:11.119
But then they see the money they make, they see the benefits, the job security, um, how we're treated better, and then they end up staying for longer.
00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:16.559
How does it feel to be a union member and a shop steward?
00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:24.240
Um honestly, just because the unions here, it's like if managers talk they don't have to talk to me however they want to.
00:17:24.399 --> 00:17:26.240
Like they have to treat me with respect.
00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:29.200
I can't just be fired for any reason.
00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:30.879
I have benefits.
00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:33.920
I just I walk into work and I feel protected.
00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:38.319
I feel safe and it's like a security, honestly.
00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:54.399
Sometimes in physical jobs, people or jobs that are just exhausting in any way, whether it's physical or mental or both combined, people kind of drift off or go into uh into the zone, or maybe they just kind of disassociate.
00:17:54.639 --> 00:17:57.359
How do you stay uh yourself?
00:17:57.519 --> 00:18:03.279
How do you stay heather um and true to yourself while managing so many different things?
00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:08.399
Um whenever yeah, whenever I'm because I shift into zombie mode once in a while.
00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:11.519
Um I just yeah, honestly, I start talking to the guest.
00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:15.039
Because as a busser or food runner, you don't have to so much.
00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:18.079
You know, I can just drop off the food and say, Oh, here you go.
00:18:18.399 --> 00:18:21.279
Or I can, you know, talk to them, be like, oh, how's your evening going?
00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:22.079
Where are you from?
00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:23.839
Is this your first time here?
00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:30.720
And it they all talk to me back, and it's kind of just picks up a mood and just kind of lifts me up when I just talk to people more.
00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:34.400
So I'll do that often if I yeah feel like that.
00:18:35.120 --> 00:18:53.839
One of my favorite simple things about being in a union is you it's sort of like a brotherhood or a sisterhood, a fraternity, um a friendship and a camaraderie with with so many other people who you can look to for advice who you can be comfortable around and ask questions, ask for help.
00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:58.319
But that doesn't mean that there's still never arguments or disagreements.
00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:08.079
Have you had uh any of those situations where you know you you may have a disagreement with someone or uh an argument with a fellow union member?
00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:08.880
Sure.
00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:10.720
Yeah, um let's see.
00:19:11.120 --> 00:19:17.599
Uh well I'm in a tip pull, so sometimes you know that can create a little bit of mess, but we're all in it together.
00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:27.039
So if someone's, you know, maybe they're um slacking off or just doing whatever, and we feel like you're not part of the team, we'll just kind of talk to them is kind of like a pep talk.
00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:29.519
Just hey, remind, hey, we're all in this together.
00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:38.640
You know, we're in a great restaurant, we have a great job, and we just kind of give them like a little pep talk, hey, we're in a team together, and that just kind of brings people back together.
00:19:39.120 --> 00:19:44.640
A strike is the classic uh but not very common labor action for unions.
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:47.759
What type but there's far more common other ones?
00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:55.039
What types of conflict resolution or work actions have you been part of when dealing with management?
00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:58.880
Um, yeah, honestly, like really just not following the contract.
00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:08.079
Kind of like I said earlier, where I'll show them the contract, it's plain black and white, you can read it, and they're like, no, no, this is wrong, no.
00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:11.440
File a grievance, I go to grievance, you know, da-da-da.
00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:13.599
File arbitration, no, no.
00:20:13.839 --> 00:20:21.279
Like that's the worst when you have it and they're just they don't want to budge, they don't want to negotiate with you or meet with you, or that's the worst.
00:20:21.360 --> 00:20:37.279
So then we have to get creative, we have to do like delegations, or there was one day where a bunch of us, we call it a forced early out, where we work half our shift and we tell the manager, hey, we have to go, and they charge us like an attendance point, but they have to let us leave.
00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:40.079
And so we did that one day as a protest.
00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:45.440
Uh so imagine you're at work and you get an emergency or you're sick or something happens and you have to leave.
00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:49.360
We have attendance points, so they'll just take away half your attendance points.
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:52.480
But it's kind of no questions asked, you just get to leave.
00:20:52.880 --> 00:21:00.000
So if all of us, you know, we're in a tip pool, we're all together, and we'll say, hey, this is you know, this is making us mad, the managers aren't doing anything.
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:05.200
Right now, if 10 of us leave, the restaurant's gonna, you know, have problems.
00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:09.120
Managers are gonna take us seriously, they're gonna fix our issue.
00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:10.799
Um, so that's what we've done before.
00:21:11.120 --> 00:21:15.039
And the restaurant can't run without you, so you can effectively shut it down.
00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:19.519
And if not shut it down completely, make a a a big statement.
00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:20.000
Right.
00:21:20.079 --> 00:21:22.880
That's the most, yeah, the best tool we have is ourselves.
00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:25.360
What do you do to decompress after work?
00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:29.200
Uh I exercise, drink tea, take a bath.
00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:32.640
So you're not spending uh a lot of time gambling yourself?
00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:33.920
I don't, no.
00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:35.519
I just I treat it as gaming.
00:21:35.599 --> 00:21:40.079
If I gamble maybe like twice a year, I'll just treat it as fun, but yeah, I don't.
00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:45.759
Where do you think your leadership experience uh will take you in the future?
00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:58.480
Um no, I like working for the union, um like the shop steward work that I do, um, and then once in a while I'll take a leave of absence and they'll kind of train me more on how to be an organizer or just do more things with the union.
00:21:58.559 --> 00:22:00.319
Um and honestly, I love doing that.
00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:04.640
I love helping people and showing people that they're strong and you have power.
00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:09.279
Um so honestly, I want to do that, just become like a full-time union organizer.
00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:10.240
Really, yeah.
00:22:10.720 --> 00:22:17.440
Do customers ever share with you stories of their own uh adventures in gambling in Las Vegas?
00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:22.400
Um, I mean you'll hear like, oh, I'm up a couple thousand, I lost a couple thousand.
00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:23.839
Um That's pretty good.
00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:24.480
That's pretty big.
00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:30.079
There's yeah, there's some very um wealthy people that come here and lose a little, it's not it's nothing to them.
00:22:30.400 --> 00:22:34.559
But yeah, I don't we don't really hear about any giant wins or giant losses.
00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:46.880
With Las Vegas being a party city with so many tourists and drink a lot of drinking and gambling, are there any uh dangers that you have to be um aware of or you know, anticipate?
00:22:47.360 --> 00:22:51.360
Yeah, and then we're lucky we have security, so we'll call them right away.
00:22:51.440 --> 00:23:03.279
Um sometimes they can be a little slow, but we'll just, you know, like I said, we're gonna teamwork, so if there's an unruly guest, it's not like we're just gonna leave one person to deal with it until security happen shows up.
00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:09.039
We all kind of help each other, we call security and the managers step in and we know with security.
00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:16.799
Because in the past I worked, you know, in outside restaurants and you don't have security, so you know, as a bartender, I become like my own security.
00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:26.799
What would you say to someone who said that raising the minimum wage, fighting for union power, the Those things are not good for people.
00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:30.480
They just cost more money and make everything more expensive for people.
00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:31.839
What would you say?
00:23:32.319 --> 00:23:36.160
It's the I mean the corporations, their profit margins are still the same.
00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:38.160
They're they want to take the profits.
00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:39.920
It's not the union wages.
00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:42.880
It's um the people at the top taking more and more.
00:23:43.120 --> 00:23:43.920
Like the 1%.
00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:52.240
And we yeah, the union wages, it's so we can have a standard of living, which we barely even have anymore with groceries and gas.
00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:56.319
But it's the the people at the bottom, they want us to fight each other, the working class.
00:23:56.559 --> 00:23:59.120
We need to fight the people at the top.
00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:02.160
Heather, you worked there for about five years.
00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:11.200
You've helped probably hundreds or even thousands of guests enjoying their time, making their trip fun and relaxing.
00:24:11.360 --> 00:24:13.920
You've also helped your co-workers as shop steward.
00:24:14.079 --> 00:24:15.920
What's something that you're proud about?
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:31.759
Honestly, when I got hired and started working at the casino in a union job, um, because I worked in non-union restaurants and you um you make less than minimum wage, you put up with sexual harassment, discrimination.
00:24:32.079 --> 00:24:34.640
Um every day is just like it's awful.
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:38.960
There's no benefits, there's no security, you're just treated like trash, honestly.
00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:44.720
Um, and so getting hired here, like I like I almost want to cry right now how thankful I am.
00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:57.759
Just everything I have, and it's thanks to the union and all the work that they do and the fighting that they do, and that's why I'm want to join it and be a part of it and continue it, because it made such a difference in my life.
00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:03.920
And that really like that's the moment for me, like my career change where oh, I don't want to work in a restaurant forever.
00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:07.039
I want to be an organizer, I want to help more people.
00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:10.559
Um, you know, that's like my purpose in life is helping people.
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:13.599
So that was like a really great moment for me.
00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:15.279
Well said.
00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:18.799
Well, Heather, thank you so much for having this conversation with me.
00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:19.839
I enjoyed it.
00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:22.240
Thank you, you too.
