********* — The union representing 50,000 ********* casino employees whose contracts will expire at the end of the month announced Wednesday the workers are set to vote on whether to ******, a move that could cripple the city.

The Culinary Union will hold the ****** vote May 22 at a university arena near the ********* Strip. A majority of yes votes would allow the union’s negotiators to call for a ****** at any time starting June 1.

“On May 22, thousands of union members will show casino employers that workers are going to fight for security and that they are not going to be left behind as companies are making record profits and getting windfall tax breaks,” Geoconda Arguello-Kline, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said in a statement.

A ****** would empty 34 casino-hotels on the Strip and in downtown ********* of kitchen employees, food and cocktail servers, housekeepers and other workers key to running a resort.

The workers’ existing contracts will expire at midnight May 31. Negotiations for new five-year contracts began in February.

Arguello-Kline previously told The Associated Press the group planned to negotiate with companies to protect existing benefits, increase wages, protect job security against the increasing adoption of technology at hotel-casinos, and to strengthen language against *****************. The union has asked casino operators to give every housekeeper a so-called “panic button”, a wireless device that can alert managers if they are in a threatening situation.

MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment operate more than half of the properties that would be affected by a ******.

“MGM Resorts and the Culinary and Bartenders Unions have always been great partners,” MGM said in a statement Wednesday. “We have issues to address, but we’re confident we will find mutually beneficial solutions to all our contract issues.”
Caesars did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Both companies previously said they would work with the union to equip housekeepers at their ********* casino-resorts with the panic buttons.

The last citywide ****** vote took place in 2002, when the overwhelming majority of 25,000 workers voted in favour of authorizing a ******. A deal was reached before a ****** was called.