Calling the 6 p.m. downtown event a celebration rather than a protest, gaming and culinary union officials are encouraging immigrants to skip a national walkout scheduled for May Day.

The unions and hotels instead want workers to sign petitions at work on Monday, and for off-duty workers to attend an hour-long program of speakers and music on Fremont Street.

The event is scheduled at a time when most maids and food-service workers have completed their work days.

Nationally, opponents of immigration reform legislation are calling on like-minded people to take off work on Monday, May Day, an international holiday recognizing organized labor. The goal is to show how necessary immigrant workers are to the economy.

"We want folks to go to work and sign the petition," D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of the almost-60,000-member Culinary Union, said Wednesday at a news conference. "On May 2, 3 or 10, we still have to get a bill through Congress. Whether someone comes to work or not on May 1 is not going to (matter)."

It would make a difference to casinos, though.

Four top officials — Terry Lanni, chairman and CEO of MGM Mirage; Gary Loveman, chairman and CEO of Harrah's Entertainment; Andrew Pascal, president of Wynn Las Vegas; and Keith Smith, president of Boyd Gaming Corp. — stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the Wednesday announcement at the Stardust.

The resort executives were the first to sign the "We Are a Nation of Immigrants"-titled petition.

"(A boycott) potentially could have a huge impact," Pascal said. "In excess of 50 percent of our workforce is of Hispanic descent."

He said that more than 30 percent of the workforce could potentially walk out, but he also said that all workers in the casinos are documented and legal.

Taylor said that it would be hard for the union to estimate how many of its members are illegal immigrants.

"We don't think anybody would tell us," he said. "That's why we need immigration reform."

The Monday evening event is open to the general public, and nonunion workers are welcome to attend.

Harrah's is encouraging only those off the clock to participate in the rally, unless they request a vacation or swap shifts with another worker, said Harrah's spokesman David Strow.

Taylor emphasized that the union and casinos are not "Johnny come lately" to immigration reform, and that the gaming industry has been working with Congressional leaders to solve the immigration dilemma.

Organizers hope that large crowds packing the Fremont Street corridor — site of a series of marches in 2002 staged by the Culinary Union for health care benefits — will be politically helpful.

"Here we have an industry that has taken the exact right position on immigration," Taylor said. "We want to send a loud and clear message to Washington and at the same time show visibly the impact of immigration."

The conference also included supportive Culinary Union members. Rio housekeeper Maria Kubiak, who emigrated from Mexico 12 years ago, said she'd be at Fremont Street on Monday.

Kubiak said attending the event was a better idea than simply staying away from one's job.

"Everybody needs to go to work, because it's important," she said. "If you don't show up to work, you lose your job, and you lose a lot."