Vegas culinary union reaches deal with hotels

A union representing hospitality workers says it has reached a tentative agreement with six more hotel-casinos in downtown Las Vegas and called off a strike deadline for another.

The agreements averted a Monday morning walkout threat at several near-Strip and downtown properties as the city kicks off Super Bowl week.

The Culinary Workers Union announced Saturday that it had reached a tentative five-year contract with the Golden Nugget, Binion’s, Four Queens, Fremont and Main Street that covers about 1,000 workers.

The union reached a tentative agreement Sunday with Downtown Grand, which represents about 200 workers.

The culinary and an associated bartenders union are being given more time to reach an agreement with Virgin Las Vegas, an off-Strip resort.

The Las Vegas Strip’s three largest employers — MGM Resorts International, Caesar Entertainment and Wynn Resorts — reached deals late last year with the union that covered 40,000 members, narrowly averting a historic strike.

Since early January, the union had settled negotiations with most of those properties including Circus Circus, Sahara Las Vegas, the Strat, Circa Resort and the El Cortez.

The NFL’s 58th championship game is expected to bring some 330,000 people to Las Vegas this week, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Snapchat owner laying off 10% of workforce

The owner of Snapchat is cutting approximately 10% of its worldwide workforce, or about 530 employees, the latest tech company to announce layoffs.

Snap Inc. said in a regulatory filing that it currently estimates $55 million to $75 million in charges, mostly for severance and related costs. It expects the majority of the costs to be incurred in the first quarter.

This isn’t the first time Snap has eliminated jobs. The Santa Monica-based company announced in August 2022 that it planned to cut about 20% of its global workforce. In the third quarter of 2023, it began winding down its AR Enterprise business, which included reducing its global employee headcount by approximately 3%, according to a regulatory filing.

There are 406 million users on Snapchat every day, on average, according to Snap’s website. It has more than 7 million Snapchat+ subscribers.

Powell says Fed is wary of cutting rates too soon

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Americans may have to wait beyond March for the central bank to cut interest rates as officials look for more economic data to confirm that inflation is headed down to 2%.

In an interview conducted Thursday with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday evening, Powell sought to explain the central bank’s rationale for eventual reductions to a broad public audience.

The “danger of moving too soon is that the job’s not quite done, and that the really good readings we’ve had for the last six months somehow turn out not to be a true indicator of where inflation’s heading,” Powell said in the interview with CBS’ Scott Pelley, according to a transcript provided by the network.

“We don’t think that’s the case,” he said. “But the prudent thing to do is to, is to just give it some time and see that the data continue to confirm that inflation is moving down to 2% in a sustainable way.”

Powell said it isn’t likely that the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed panel that sets interest rates, “will reach that level of confidence” about inflation’s path by its March 19-20 gathering, echoing remarks he made at a news conference Wednesday.

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.