LAS VEGAS (AP) — The longest strike in a long time by Las Vegas resort staff ended Wednesday with a tentative contract between the union and a on line casino the place tons of of staff had walked off the job in November.
The Culinary Employees Union introduced on the social media platform X that it secured a pending five-year deal for about 700 staff at Virgin Accommodations Las Vegas close to the Strip. In a joint assertion, the union and on line casino stated they have been dedicated “to fostering a optimistic and collaborative working relationship for the advantage of all staff members on the property” after the 69-day strike.
Though the deal nonetheless should be authorised by members, it indicators an finish to the extremely contentious and prolonged contract negotiations that stalled underneath the general public highlight due to disagreements over pay. The union’s earlier contract with Virgin Accommodations expired in June 2023.
The brand new contract doubtless comprises important pay raises just like what the remainder of the union’s members on the Strip, downtown and at different off-Strip properties have gotten within the final 12 months. That features what the union has described as a historic 32% improve in wages over 5 years, an quantity Virgin Accommodations had stated isn’t “economically viable” for the on line casino’s future.
However all through the strike, Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer and lead negotiator, repeatedly stated staff at Virgin Accommodations wouldn’t accept a “second-class contract.”
Lee McNamara, a cook dinner who has labored there for greater than 25 years, advised Clark County commissioners in early December that they deserved to be paid a residing wage like their counterparts at different casinos.
“We’re doing the identical quantity of labor for much less pay,” he stated. “We are actually the lowest-paid union on line casino because it stands proper now.”
For months the union maintained around-the-clock picket strains outdoors the hotel-casino that’s inside strolling distance of the Strip and alongside a typical route between the primary vacationer hall and the town’s worldwide airport.
Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Reps. Dina Titus and Steven Horsford additionally joined staff on the picket line.
The union final went on strike in 2002, when staff on the Golden Gate hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas stopped working for 10 days.
The Culinary Union is the biggest labor union in Nevada with about 60,000 members statewide. Most of them are in Las Vegas.
Initially Printed: