LAS VEGAS – A week ago, convention crew chief Diann Foster had one word for coronavirus: overhyped.

Now she's struggling to understand how so much could go so wrong so fast.

A Las Vegas convention builder and breaker for almost two decades, the 48-year-old Teamsters Local 631 foreman thought little about COVID-19 canceling a few shows.

That was before the nixing of the NAB Show. Produced by the National Association of Broadcasters, the fourth largest convention in Las Vegas had staffed 2,500 behind-the-scenes union workers. Today, every one is out of work.

"It is detrimental," Foster said. "We were banking on this show to compensate for the ones that canceled – but everything has canceled right before our eyes."

COVID-19 spread is intensifying across Nevada. Fallout in Las Vegas has already devastated on-the-ground workers whose paychecks depend on serving hundreds of thousands of convention-goers, but that market has atrophied in an unprecedented response to the pandemic.

The cancellations came at a cost: Laid off warehouse crews. Up to 90 hours of regular pay plus overtime a week lost. Many left with no choice but to look for new jobs.

In Northern Nevada, impact in the service sector has been slower to form. Workers feel like they've entered a game of wait-and-see. They fear the worst has yet to come.

Ready for work to looking for work

Conventions like the NAB Show provided workers like Foster a solid routine, a blue-collar ritual she knows well.

Every day for two weeks, the alarm clock would ring at 4 a.m. The pot of coffee would brew as the shower ran, and Foster would be out the door and in the convention hall for a 6 a.m. start.

She'd work until 7 p.m., return home and get ready for the routine to repeat – again and again and again – until quitting time.

Now there’s no work, no routine, no paycheck.

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When the spread of COVID-19 forced NAB Show organizers to cancel this week, Foster and her workers shared the same reaction.

"Oh my god, what are we going to do?" she said. "Some of us are in panic mode right now, but some of us are getting ready to go into panic mode."

'A little on edge'

In Northern Nevada, with one-third the number of Las Vegas' cases as of Thursday, workers and business owners have taken a wait-and-see approach to the outbreak.

COVID-19 hasn’t impacted them too badly — though nerves are beginning to pique.

“To be honest it’s hard to tell right now,” said Tyler Colton, owner of The Emerson cocktail bar in Midtown Reno.

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Numbers were down early this week but picked back up on Wednesday. This weekend, he said, will be a good indicator for what the future might hold.

His staff — who, like others in the service industry, rely on tips — are worried the virus will scare people away.

“My bar staff is nervous — you know, everyone is a little on edge," he said. "We’re just hoping Nevada gets spared."

'A severe impact'

Skip Daly, a Nevada assemblyman (D-31) and business manager at the Laborer’s Union Local 169, said the union’s 1,200 members haven't seen much change yet.

The craft laborers are not usually eligible for sick leave, but the union is preparing to negotiate that benefit for members.

At the very least, Daly said, workers who fall ill and can’t work are eligible for unemployment.

Tommy Blitsch has been with Teamsters Local 631 in Las Vegas for more than 25 years. Now secretary-treasurer, Blitsch worked through 9/11 and the recession, but none of those brought his world to stand-still like COVID-19.

"It looks like now through April, we're seeing a lot of cancellations, which means a lot of people aren't going to be working," Blitsch said. "It's going to have a severe impact on some households."

Workers have come to Blitsch with questions about the future, but — like many in the grips of this intensifying pandemic — he doesn’t have many answers.

"This is something totally out of our control," he said. "We need to make sure we're ready when the shows come back to answer the bell."

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