Culinary Union Local 226 and Mission Industries faced a Tuesday deadline set by the union last week amid stalled talks on a union healthcare plan.

The company has said it was trying to renegotiate some customer contracts to help pay for a health plan it says costs more than twice the current amount.

"The casinos have all been willing to listen and talk with us. They've been receptive," David Spurlock Jr., general counsel for Mission Industries, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The company has said it will continue all of its services if workers strike. Nearly 50 hotel-casinos rely on the company's six local plants for sheets, pillow covers, towels and other services.

The union has spent a week preparing for what could be the first Culinary strike since workers walked out for eight days at the downtown Golden Gate in July 2002.

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