Hundreds of hotel workers are going on strike at a casino near the Las Vegas Strip

By RIO YAMAT, Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Hundreds of hotel workers at a casino near the Las Vegas Strip went on strike just before dawn Friday after a long and highly publicized battle over a new contract.

The strike at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas marks the first indefinite strike in 22 years for the Culinary Workers Union, the largest union in Nevada, with about 60,000 members.

The union posted on social platform X on Friday morning: “@VirginHotelsLV casino is ON STRIKE! Virgin hotel workers are walking away from Virgin Las Vegas for a fair contract NOW! Stand with the workers, DO NOT CROSS THE STRIKE LINE!”

There would be “24/7 picket lines around the property” during the strike, the union said in a news release, urging customers to cancel their reservations or check out and choose union accommodation.

The company’s proposal amounted to an estimated $0.30 per year in wages over five years, after deducting money for benefits, Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, said in the news release.

“Virgin Las Vegas’ proposal is miles apart and an insult to every employee. That is why the committee voted unanimously to refuse to settle for a second-tier contract,” Pappageorge said. “Workers at Virgin Las Vegas deserve a first-class contract with fair pay increases, and they are organized and ready to strike for them.”

Casino workers also took 48-hour layoffs earlier this year as negotiations escalated, hoping to pressure Virgin Hotels to agree to a new five-year deal with higher wages and better working conditions.

Housekeepers, cocktail and food servers, porters and bellhops were below the picket line Friday outside the hotel-casino, which was formerly the Hard Rock Las Vegas.

It comes exactly a year after casinos across the Strip narrowly prevented tens of thousands of hospitality workers from walking off the job on the weekend the city was set to host the first Formula 1 race on the famous boulevard. But just before the union’s deadline for a strike, agreements were reached that gave workers roughly a 32% salary increase over the life of the contract, including a 10% increase in the first year.

Following last November’s breakthrough deals, the Culinary Union quickly reached similar agreements for the rest of its members at major hotel-casinos on the Strip, downtown and at hotels off the Strip – with the exception of Virgin Hotels. The contracts on the Strip alone involve more than 40,000 employees.

Bethany Khan, a spokesperson for the union, said Virgin Hotels is the “last holdout.” The union’s contract for about 700 employees expired in June.

The union says Virgin Hotels will not give its employees a pay rise during the first three years of a new five-year contract.

“We are worth more than zero raises,” Merla Paramo, a casino doorman, said in a statement released by the union.

Virgin Hotels said in a statement Thursday that it had agreed to some pay increases before the fourth year of a new contract, but the union rejected the proposal. Virgin Hotels did not provide details of its proposal.