Caesars Windsor employees are on strike after rejecting a tentative contract agreement.

Casino workers walked off the job at 12:01 a.m. Friday after 59 per cent of workers rejected the proposed three-year deal.

"There's a lot they liked in the agreement, but ultimately, there's a lot of anger, disrespect they feel they've gotten from the employer," said Unifor Local 444 president James Stewart.

"We fully endorsed the agreement," he added. "There were some good gains in the agreement and I think the members recognized that, but we fell short in being able to ratify it."

The 2,300 striking workers include dealers, cooks, housekeepers and janitors who had voted more than 98 per cent last month in favour of a strike to support their contract demands.

Hotel reservations booked between Friday, April 6 until Thursday, April 12 have been cancelled, Caesars said in a statement. For more information, they are asking patrons to call 1-800-991-8888 or email vipservices@caesarswindsor.com.

The Johnny Reid concert with Glass Tiger that was scheduled for Friday night has also been postponed.

“Ticketholders can hold onto their tickets to be honoured on the new show date, to be determined,” said the statement. “Refunds for postponed shows will be handled through the method of purchase, however Box Office refunds will be processed once the labour disruption is resolved and Caesars Windsor reopens.”

All future Colosseum shows will remain scheduled on their original date until further notice.

Kevin Laforet, a regional president with Caesars Entertainment, said the ratification result is disappointing and called the tentative deal "fair and sustainable."

"We will be meeting with Unifor to discuss the next steps," he said in a statement.

Stewart said, however, that there were no immediate plans to resume bargaining.

"We called the casino immediately upon getting the answer and the casino didn't say anything about getting back to the table."

The casino said a shutdown process began at 11 p.m. and that the facility would be closed to the public until a new agreement is reached and ratified.

"I personally want to apologize for any inconvenience this causes our customers," said Laforet.

With files from The Canadian Press.