Story at a glance
- Goodman said the city would “love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against,” when discussing her push to reopen casinos and hotels amid the coronavirus outbreak.
- Union leaders slammed her comments, calling them “outrageous.”
- The mayor’s comments come as some states begin gradually reopening some nonessential businesses.
The mayor of Las Vegas is getting pushback from workers after she doubled down on her push to reopen the city’s casinos and hotels amid the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 46,000 people in the U.S. so far.
During an interview Wednesday with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Mayor Carolyn Goodman said the city “would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against.” She also referred to the city’s workers as a “control group.”
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The mayor was asked how she would ensure social distancing guidelines are enforced in businesses that reopen. She said it was up to businesses to make sure reopening is done in a safe manner.
“That’s up to them to figure out. I don’t own a casino,” Goodman told CNN.
In response, the president of UNITE HERE, a union representing 300,000 hospitality workers across North America, said the mayor’s comments were “one of the worst things I’ve heard.”
“Nobody wants people to go back more than I do, but everyone wants to go back to a safe and secure workplace and not be an experiment in a petri dish,” D. Taylor, president of UNITE HERE, said according to The Daily Beast.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE that represents 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, called Goodman’s comments “outrageous.”
“In Las Vegas, we’ve had 11 Culinary Union members die because of COVID-19,” Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline said in a statement Wednesday.
“Health and safety is our priority –– workers and guests have to be safe. We want people back to work, but it has to be safe and secure and we don’t want workers to be part of an experiment,” Argüello-Kline said.
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SEUI Local 1107, a union representing health care workers in Nevada, also criticized the mayor’s suggestion.
“To suggest that we should endanger more lives by treating Las Vegas like a guinea pig in some wild experiment betrays a profound level of ignorance of the current situation,” a spokesperson told the Daily Beast.
Goodman’s comments come as some states begin gradually reopening some nonessential businesses. Previously, Goodman called Nevada’s stay-at-home orders “total insanity” citing the economic fallout the city would endure as a result.
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) said Wednesday that the state eagerly anticipates reopening for business “when the time is right” but emphasized the need for adherence to public health protocols.
Nevada has recorded more than 4,000 coronavirus cases and more than 180 deaths.
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