Hattie Canty
A room attendant becomes a union leader
A hotel worker elected in 1990 as Culinary Local 226’s first Black woman president.
From the hotel workforce
The Culinary Union’s history follows Canty from work as a room attendant at the Maxim to its presidency. Her election placed a casino worker at the center of one of Las Vegas’s most consequential labor institutions. [1]
A prolonged struggle
Her leadership overlapped the Frontier strike that began in September 1991 and continued for more than six years. The union’s history supplies its own account of the campaign and the organizing behind it. [1]
Key dates
People in the same story
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In the archive
2 matching entries in the saved collection.
Photograph of Hattie Canty and Jim Arnold at the MGM Grand rally, Culinary Union, Las Vegas (Nev.), 1990s (folder 1 of 1)
Photograph · Culinary Workers Union Local 226 Las Vegas, Nevada Photographs. Catalog date: 1990–1999.
Photographs of Jim Arnold and Hattie Canty election rally, Culinary Union, Las Vegas (Nev.), 1994
Photograph · Culinary Workers Union Local 226 Las Vegas, Nevada Photographs. Catalog date: 1994.
Go deeper into the record.
Sources for this profile and starting points for further research. Access notes mark links we could not open directly during the October 3–4, 2026 checks. Historical accounts describe their own period; they do not necessarily describe current operations.
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Our History
The union’s account of its organizing and leadership; an institutional perspective.