Will a Las Vegas Convention Center Strike Impact CES?

As CES, the world’s largest tech show, prepares to swing open its doors to more than 100,000 people on Thursday, January 5, a threat of a possible strike by food service workers at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), as well as Covid are concerns. 

Sodexo/Centerplate culinary union members at the LVCC voted unanimously to authorize a strike in early December. This impacts 300 employees who say their jobs aren’t paying enough to keep up with the cost of living. 

If a strike does happen, the impact can be disastrous as it may influence other unions that will likely honor the picket line and not cross it.

“As with many elements of event planning, we have contingencies in place,” according to a spokesperson from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) that puts on CES. 

Sodexo stresses that a strike has not been called and that taking a strike vote is a normal part of the collective bargaining agreement negotiations process for Unite Here.

Another issue is that starting the first day of the show, the United States government is requiring that all inbound passengers from China, Hong Kong, and Macau test negative for Covid before boarding a plane to the United States. As a result, travelers from these areas will have a different process for obtaining their badge onsite.

The CDC states that such testing measures come amid an unprecedented surge of Omicron-offshoot variant cases in China, as the country halted draconian COVID-19 lockdowns and its zero-COVID policy.

According to CES’s Covid policy FAQ page, free Covid-19 antigen tests will be available at the convention center.