Workers at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas Walk Off the Job in 48-Hour Strike

LAS VEGAS — About 700 workers at a hotel-casino near the Las Vegas Strip have walked off the job in a 48-hour strike after months of negotiations for a new five-year contract with Virgin Hotels. The Culinary Union Local 226, the largest in Nevada, organized the strike, marking its first in 22 years.

Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry, and kitchen workers were among those picketing in front of Virgin Hotels just after dawn on Friday. The union had authorized a citywide strike last year but reached agreements with other major hotel-casinos on the Strip and downtown properties.

Virgin Hotels filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the union of not negotiating in good faith. The hotel said it had asked the union to join in mediation to avoid disrupting guests and employees’ lives with a work stoppage.

The strike comes after union members at other Las Vegas properties received significant salary increases earlier this year. The Culinary Union hopes the 48-hour strike will expedite a new agreement on wage and benefit increases.

Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union, stated that workers have been without a contract for nearly a year and that the complaint to the NLRB had no merit. The union had previously called off a strike deadline in February but decided to proceed with the strike after waiting for a resolution.