Thousands of Culinary Union members meeting last month to authorize a strike. Courtesy photo.
A former casino worker at The D Casino in Downtown Las Vegas, Xstal Campbell, alleges she was fired from her job after she submitted a report of sexual harassment she faced from managers and customers to the company’s human resources department.
Campbell worked as a dancing bartender before she was fired in May, the Culinary Union said in a release issued Tuesday.
“I endured sexual harassment from one of my managers at The D Casino for nearly a year,” Campbell said. “The height of the harassment occurred during my probationary period and I felt vulnerable and that if I spoke up, I could lose my job.”
At one point Campbell said she was asked if she did anything to elicit the sexual harassment from her manager by the company. In the months following, Campbell said she felt targeted by management and began to feel a lot of anxiety which affected her work. She was suspended twice for days at a time and eventually fired.
The Culinary Union is currently bargaining for stronger sexual harassment protections under their current contract negotiations for 2,200 workers at 4 casino resorts, including workers at The D Casino in downtown Las Vegas.
Tomorrow, Campbell and other Culinary Union workers will share their stories of sexual harassment with the Gaming Control Board as it weighs regulatory standards for casinos.
“The D Casino’s treatment of Ms. Campbell is shameful and we will not stop fighting until she has justice,” said Geoconda Argüello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union in a statement. “At a time when the hospitality and gaming industries are working to ensure workers are protected, The D Casino is continuing to blame the victim. The company needs to do the right thing and ensure their workplace is free from sexual harassment.”
Earlier this year the Culinary and Bartender Unions surveyed about 20 percent of their more than 50,000 Las Vegas casino workers. Of those surveyed, 59 percent of cocktail servers and 27 percent of hotel housekeepers said they had been sexually harassed by guests, managers or others while on the job. An unsettling number of workers —72 percent of cocktail servers and 53 percent of hotel housekeepers — said a guest had done something to make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
Working-class women in the restaurant and hospitality industry have reported the highest rates of sexual harassment on the job. From 2005 to 2015, hotel and restaurant workers filed at least 5,000 sexual harassment complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the most in any industry.
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