One year after the Las Vegas Strip’s casinos narrowly avoided tens of thousands of hospitality workers going on strike days before the city was set to host its first Formula One race, workers at an off-Strip casino walked off the job following a contentious fight for a new contract.
Hospitality staff at the off-Strip Virgin Hotels Las Vegas went on strike on Friday, November 15, marking the first open-ended strike in 22 years for the Culinary Workers Union, the largest labor union in Nevada, which has about 60,000 members. The union posted about the labor action on its social media on Friday, November 15: “@VirginHotelsLV casino is ON STRIKE! Virgin hotel workers are walking out RIGHT NOW at Virgin Las Vegas for a fair contract! Stand with the workers, DO NOT CROSS THE STRIKE LINE!”
In a news release, Culinary Union secretary-treasurer Ted Pappageorge stated that the company’s proposal worked out to be an estimated 30 cents per year added to wages over five years, after deducting money for benefits. “Workers at Virgin Las Vegas deserve a first-class contract with fair wage increases, and they are organized and ready to strike for it,” Pappageorge stated in the release. The union is pushing for Virgin’s 700 hospitality workers to win a new five-year union contract with increased wages and says that Virgin Hotels does not want to give its workers any wage increases during the first three years of that contract. “The Virgin Las Vegas’ proposal is miles apart and is an insult to every worker,” says Pappageorge.