Union workers picket for 3rd day at Las Vegas casino with no talks slated

LAS VEGAS (news agencies) — Picketing continued Sunday outside a hotel-casino near the Las Vegas Strip that remained open with no talks scheduled between management and union members striking for a new contract.

Workers are seeking a pay raise and benefits comparable to pacts reached last year at other resorts.

The walkout by about 700 Culinary Workers Union laborers at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas comes a week before the second annual Las Vegas Grand Prix is due to draw hundreds of thousands of fans for Formula 1 racing on the Strip and nearby streets. It’s the first open-ended strike since 2002 for the largest labor union in Nevada, which has about 60,000 members.

No new negotiations were scheduled, said union spokesperson Bethany Khan and Terri Maruca, media representative for Virgin Hotels, owner of the 1,500-room property.

Maruca said the company has fielded applications from more than 600 prospective contract and temporary workers since Friday. The union pays striking workers $500 per week for at least five days for picketing shifts.

Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers are among workers represented by the Culinary Union at the property, where the union also staged a 48-hour job action last May to call for Virgin Hotels to agree to a new five-year deal with expanded benefits and increased wages.

The company reached a contract agreement last week with 105 members of the Teamsters Union, including front desk, valet and call center workers, Maruca said.

Other casinos on and off the Strip reached agreements with the union just before the Formula 1 race a year ago, with contracts containing salary increases of about 32% over five years for tens of thousands of workers at properties including the Bellagio, Paris Las Vegas, MGM Grand and Caesars Palace.

In a statement on Sunday, Virgin Hotels called those contracts “economically unsustainable” and said it wants a “reasonable agreement” for its 1,710 employees. It has accused union leaders of refusing to engage in “meaningful negotiations.”

Culinary Union members last went on strike in 2002 for 10 days at the Golden Gate hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas.