Dive Brief:
- The Culinary Union began a 48-hour strike at Virgin Las Vegas early Friday morning. The strike could see up to 700 hospitality workers walk off the job.
- The walkout — the first strike at the property in 22 years — will impact “all major areas of operations” at the hotel, according to the union, including housekeeping, food and beverage and unionized restaurants on the property.
- Thus far, more than 50,000 workers at other Vegas resorts — including those operated by the “Big 3,” MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts — have won higher wages in negotiations with their employers. Virgin Las Vegas is an exception.
Dive Insight:
The Culinary and Bartenders Unions, known collectively as the Culinary Union, first voted to authorize a strike in September.
After MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts averted strikes at their properties by agreeing to raise wages for workers, the union set a second round of strike deadlines at 21 more resorts in January — including for Virgin Las Vegas.
Though the majority of hotels in the second round of strike deadlines have since reached agreements with workers, Virgin Las Vegas is an outlier. Contract negotiations between the union and Virgin Las Vegas resume Tuesday, May 14, the union said.
Virgin Las Vegas said it will continue to operate as normal this weekend.
Union workers elsewhere in the city have won their highest-ever negotiated wage increases, reduced workloads and housekeeping room quotas and on-the-job safety protections.
The Culinary and Bartenders Unions are an affiliate of hospitality union Unite Here, which is threatening strikes across the country this year if hotel companies don’t give workers a greater share of the profits they’ve seen amid the post-pandemic travel surge.
Contracts for union workers at 230 hotels across the U.S. and Canada expire in more than 22 cities this year, including Boston, Honolulu, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
In a first-quarter earnings call last week, Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg said newly negotiated union contracts had caused higher operational costs at Las Vegas resorts.
