Hundreds of members from Culinary Workers Union Local 226 have been showing up to protests held at the organization's Las Vegas headquarters since late August, criticizing the union's new healthcare policy and the potential structure of an upcoming wage raise.

Speeches at the rallies — which organizers have coined the Fair Union Reform Movement 226 — have included broader criticisms, including claims that leadership is dismissive of workers' complaints and that contract negotiations are not transparent. 

But leaders of one of the state's largest and most politically influential unions said they aren't worried, describing the movement as the efforts of a small number of disaffected members who are intentionally spreading misinformation to their co-workers about a plan that union leaders say will reap broad benefits.

"You have a few hundred folks out of 60,000 that want to run the union," said Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge in an interview with The Nevada Independent. "I say bring it on … the more people find out about what kind of help these workers got and what they're crying about, the better."

Many of the concerns center around changes to Culinary's healthcare plan that took effect in September. Adult enrollees now have the option to see primary care doctors based at the union's four healthcare centers, which also provide dental and vision services, physical therapy, laboratory testing and more — all without fees. Members can remain with their external primary care providers but those providers are now considered out-of-network, therefore carrying higher fees. 

Some workers are anxious the four centers won't be able to accommodate the union's 60,000-plus workers and feel the union is denying them the opportunity to remain with their original providers. 

"We feel like we are being manipulated and not allowed to make our own choices regarding healthcare," Rodolfo Valle, who works at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and is a union shop steward, said at a protest Wednesday. "That should be our choice. … We live in a free country, yet I feel trapped." 

Union leaders maintain that such claims inaccurately describe the policy and that they're doing their best to keep expenses low for members while healthcare costs skyrocket.

The protests are some of the most visible signs of discontent seen in years in Nevada's Culinary Union, a political powerhouse noted for its generally pro-Democratic political messaging and its help in winning key races in swingy Nevada. 

Nearly a dozen workers who spoke to The Indy at protests said they that leadership wasn't being transparent about the changes and had failed to address workers' grievances on a list of wide-ranging issues.

"There's always going to be a few folks that want everything for free," Pappageorge said. "But it doesn't work like that. What we've been able to do is make sure we have great wage increases, the best healthcare that everybody wants, and a great pension."

Who is protesting?

The protests have drawn somewhere between 100 to 200 members each week, although Culinary leadership says they are being spearheaded by a group of organizers who have previously gotten into disputes with union leadership.

One of the movement's organizers is Donna Kelly, who has been a union member on-and-off for decades. She ran against Culinary Union President Diana Valles and lost in this year's elections after being asked to run, she said, by various union members who were unsatisfied with the direction of leadership. 

"It's very hard when one little person goes against the mighty, mighty union," Kelly told The Indy. "It wasn't about going against the union. It was about going against the leadership and how they're treating the members. The members should be first, and that's where I believe myself that the union has lost their way."

Pappageorge said he hasn't met with the organizers of the rallies because there is no need to. "They are part of the 15 percent that voted against the administration in May," he said. 

He also said Culinary's leadership is transparent with its membership about the organization's financial status and that they send out frequent communications about changing policies.

"We put out information about where we're at with the economic package, where we're at with our healthcare costs, where we're at with the pension costs," he said.

Sebastian Espinoza, a Caesars Palace worker and union shop steward who served on Culinary's negotiating committee, told The Indy that "some people are just naturally negative," or more prone to suspect that "you guys are just lying to me" about the new healthcare plans. He believes some of the rally attendees are being misled, while others are there to actively stir up "anger toward the union."

Another organizer of the protests is Elizabeth Renteria, a Caesars Palace housekeeper who alleges that she was forced out of union leadership after submitting a sexual harassment complaint in 2024. She boosted the opposition slate that ran earlier this year, a person familiar with the elections told The Indy, seconding Kelly's nomination for the presidency.

Renteria told The Indy in an interview that the union has engaged in "retaliation" toward herself and "many people" who "say something the union doesn't like." 

What is the new healthcare plan?

The protests have focused on some members' larger frustrations with Culinary leadership, but their immediate cause was the union's announcement this summer of changes to members' healthcare plans.

The Culinary Union has long touted the affordability and reliability of its healthcare coverage, which is provided through the Culinary Health Fund, a private trust managed by union and resort representatives that employers pay into for each hour worked by employees. The healthcare plans cover not just workers but also their spouses and dependents — serving roughly 130,000 people. 

With healthcare growing more expensive nationwide, the union has expanded its network of Culinary Health Centers to "contain" those costs. The first of these centers opened in 2017, and the fourth, a nearly 99,000-square-foot facility, opened in August.

Culinary leadership has advertised the expansion of the centers as an unusually generous benefit. Last week, the union posted online a notice explaining that its new health plan provides free family coverage with no monthly premiums, copays or deductibles and that the four centers now have more than 90 primary care providers. They added that appointments for new patients are typically available within 10 days.

But workers who have been protesting remain troubled that they will have to change providers starting this month, in spite of the union's assurances. Rally attendees allege that the union has failed to be fully transparent about the changes before they went into effect, including canceling meetings, although union leadership hosted a town hall last week to discuss the policy changes. 

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 helped manage her cancer treatment. She said that she fears getting an appointment at one of the health centers will be burdensome, adding that she believes the centers are staffed by nurse practitioners rather than doctors. 

The Culinary Health Center website lists a mix of physicians and nurse practitioners under its list of providers. 

"I am a cancer patient. I've had that doctor for many years. My doctor already knows my clinical history," Moreno said. 

Another member, Miriam Nouri, said at Wednesday's rally that she would rather pay for her healthcare than switch providers. Union leadership describes many attendees' views as misguided, arguing members are being deceived to believe they will be forced to switch their care or that the quality of care at the centers will be lower. 

Some rally attendees who spoke with The Indy cited false information in their explanations for why they attended the rallies, including that the centers' doctors were being "sent over" from abroad or were not licensed to practice.

Espinoza, the union member who believes the protesters are misinformed, said wait times have been dramatically reduced and that concerns about delays are "past tense problems" coming from members who "haven't been to one of our clinics since 2016." 

"We're losing the point"

Protesters are also frustrated over their fears that more of their wages could be reserved for workers' healthcare funds. 

The majority of the union's workers are scheduled to receive a raise starting Oct. 1. The precise amount of the raise has not yet been settled yet, but it will be drawn from a $1.55 hourly increase in benefits that will also be used to cover items such as healthcare and pensions. 

Some members have circulated a graphic online which suggests that of the $1.55 total increase, the union will be taking $1.06 for the workers' health and welfare fund. The union says this is false — the graphic is outdated, displaying numbers that represent a worst-case scenario. 

The upcoming October wage hike is the result of lengthy negotiations by Culinary and its affiliated Bartenders Local 165 throughout most of 2023 and some of 2024. Those negotiations resulted in new, five-year deals with dozens of Las Vegas resort operators, along with first-time union contracts at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas and The Venetian Las Vegas.

Culinary said the raises negotiated in those contracts — 10 percent in the first year — were the largest in the union's 89-year history. The average worker earned roughly $28 an hour under the previous contract, including health and pension benefits. By the end of the five-year deal, the average worker will earn $37 an hour, including benefits. For a 40-hour workweek that's roughly $77,000 a year. 

"A big chunk of the money that we won for this year is going to have to go to healthcare," Pappageorge said, blaming it on costs outside of Culinary's control. Espinoza said Medicaid cuts by the Trump administration had exacerbated those trends. 

"We're in a healthcare crisis right now," said Pappageorge, who added that the union will continue to negotiate "very strong wage increases" but that it is also important to secure funding for healthcare programs to "take care of our families."    

Some attendees of Wednesday's rally also expressed frustration that they have failed to meet the threshold for free union insurance because many of their shifts have been cut. Workers must work about 30 hours per week to qualify for health plans, but if they cannot meet that quota, they can still obtain benefits by paying the Culinary Health Fund for the additional hours they need to qualify, at the same rate their employers pay.

Blanca Rugerio, who works for Resorts World Las Vegas, said she is frustrated that she continues to contribute toward health benefits despite sometimes being unable to access care, as reduced hours can make it harder to qualify. She also said she recently had to pay about $2,000 for an emergency room visit, after her new primary care doctor was delayed in getting her a referral.

Xoali Pilotzi is a guest room attendant at The Venetian who served on the committee for the most recent round of contract negotiations. She said she believes the complaints at the rallies are based on false information and has encouraged co-workers to visit the clinics before criticizing them. 

"I think we're losing the point," Pilotzi said of her fellow Culinary members protesting the union. She said conditions were far worse for people like her before her casino unionized.

"We need to be together and united to go against these companies to fight for better work conditions. … They just forget about all these things we have pending. … They're not harming the union, they're just harming themselves."