Dive Brief:
- Labor disputes continue at Virgin Las Vegas, the only remaining resort in the city that has not reached an agreement with the Culinary Union, according to a union press conference recording and release obtained by Hotel Dive.
- Workers at the hotel staged a 48-hour strike earlier this month. Though both sides resumed negotiations afterward, Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-general, called Virgin Las Vegas’ latest proposal “unacceptable.”
- More than 50,000 workers at other Las Vegas resorts have won “historic” wage increases, according to the union. Virgin Las Vegas’ most recent proposal, the union claimed, falls short of what its workers have been offered at other hotels.
Dive Insight:
Union workers at Virgin Las Vegas have been working under a contract that expired nearly one year ago, Pappageorge said in a press conference with reporters Thursday, which Hotel Dive reviewed a recording of.
After the union’s 48-hour strike on May 10 and 11, Pappageorge said, the company offered to raise wages — but by less than union workers have seen elsewhere in the city. “It is woefully inadequate and substandard,” Pappageorge said during the press conference.
Virgin Las Vegas did not respond to a Hotel Dive request for comment.
The union said its strike impacted all major areas of operations at Virgin Las Vegas, including housekeeping, food and beverage and several on-property unionized restaurants.
In a statement to Hotel Dive when the strike launched, a resort spokesperson said Virgin Las Vegas would operate as normal during the strike. The union, however, noted that local reporting found the hotel was temporarily not accepting room bookings for the dates of the strike, May 10 and 11.
Elsewhere in Las Vegas, Culinary Union members have won their highest-ever negotiated wage increases, reduced workloads and housekeeping room quotas and additional on-the-job safety protections.
And across the country, workers in Culinary Union’s affiliate Unite Here are threatening strikes if their hotel employers don’t do the same, as union contracts for more than 40,000 employees are set to expire in 2024.
The Culinary and Bartenders Unions comprise 60,000 hospitality workers across Nevada, 53,000 of which are in Las Vegas.
