Picketing continued Sunday outdoors a hotel-casino close to the Las Vegas Strip that remained open with no talks scheduled between administration and union members hanging for a brand new contract.
Employees are looking for a pay increase and advantages corresponding to pacts reached final 12 months at different resorts.
The walkout by about 700 Culinary Employees Union laborers at Virgin Accommodations Las Vegas comes every week earlier than the second annual Las Vegas Grand Prix is due to attract lots of of 1000’s of followers for Method 1 racing on the Strip and close by streets. It’s the primary open-ended strike since 2002 for the biggest labor union in Nevada, which has about 60,000 members.
No new negotiations have been scheduled, mentioned union spokesperson Bethany Khan and Terri Maruca, media consultant for Virgin Accommodations, proprietor of the 1,500-room property.
Maruca mentioned the corporate has fielded functions from greater than 600 potential contract and short-term employees since Friday. The union pays hanging employees $500 per week for not less than 5 days for picketing shifts.
Visitor room attendants, cocktail and meals servers, bartenders, laundry and kitchen employees are amongst employees represented by the Culinary Union on the property, the place the union additionally staged a 48-hour job motion final Might to name for Virgin Accommodations to comply with a brand new five-year take care of expanded advantages and elevated wages.
The corporate reached a contract settlement final week with 105 members of the Teamsters Union, together with entrance desk, valet and name middle employees, Maruca mentioned.
Different casinos on and off the Strip reached agreements with the union simply earlier than the Method 1 race a 12 months in the past, with contracts containing wage will increase of about 32% over 5 years for tens of 1000’s of employees at properties together with the Bellagio, Paris Las Vegas, MGM Grand and Caesars Palace.
In a press release on Sunday, Virgin Accommodations known as these contracts “economically unsustainable” and mentioned it desires a “cheap settlement” for its 1,710 staff. It has accused union leaders of refusing to have interaction in “significant negotiations.”
Culinary Union members final went on strike in 2002 for 10 days on the Golden Gate hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas.