‘No progress’ in months-long contract dispute, union leader says

UPDATE: Approximately 23 Culinary Union members were arrested at the Virgin Las Vegas Thursday evening in an act of non-violent civil disobedience as 700 hospitality workers continue pushing for a new 5-year union contract at the property, according to the culinary union.

LAS VEGAS ( KLAS ) — Union officials and the operator of an off-strip resort blame each other for the last 15 months that employees have worked without a contract.

Officials from Culinary Union Local 226 cite the same sticking point from June 2023 when the previous contract expired: no wage increases for most of the proposed new five-year contract. That detail provoked the first-ever strike for Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, which took place over Mother’s Day weekend.

If negotiations continue as they are, Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said the organization is not afraid to threaten another strike.

“The company has not moved,” Pappageorge said Thursday morning. “The strike deadline was February for every other hotel in Las Vegas except for this one. The workers voted and the committee voted to give them more time, and here we are now, February to September, and no progress with this company yet.”

Regarding the stipulations the union is asking Virgin Hotels Las Vegas to agree to, Pappageorge said it was a large contract.

“It’s about $9 an hour overall when you add benefits,” Pappageorge said, adding that the number is similar to the agreements reached with 28 other independently owned properties. Pappageorge noted that workers at those properties received just over a $3 per hour increase in the first year of the contract and more than $9 more over the course of five years on average.

Virgin Hotels property owner JC Hospitality’s “best, last, and final offer,” which was sent to the Culinary Union and media in May, offers its more than 700 employees $1 per hour increases in the fourth and fifth years of the proposed contract, with no scheduled increases in the first three years.

In it, JC Hospitality claimed it “simply cannot afford” the union’s demands. In May, it filed an unfair labor practice lawsuit with the National Labor Relations Board.

“There are things to do to help to give the company some relief in the early years of the contract,” Pappageorge said. “They’ve got several sub-contracted non-union restaurants, sub-contracted non-union cleaning. You know, those are among some of the concessions the union’s been willing to work with them on that other casinos, other companies didn’t get.”

In a statement to 8newsnow.com Thursday, the hotel says the union has not returned to the bargaining table since July:

“Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is disappointed by the Culinary Workers Union 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 plan to picket our property this afternoon. We have made every effort to negotiate in good faith and prioritize the well-being of our team members.  At the end of our last negotiating session on July 11, we informed the Union that we were willing to meet again as soon as the Union was ready to do so. Since then, the Union has not contacted us with any potential meeting dates.  It is disappointing to us and all of our stakeholders that the Union is spending time trying to gain leverage through the media rather than working cooperatively and constructively to bring these negotiations to a mutually satisfactory conclusion.  Our operations will be unaffected by the picket, and we remain committed to providing exceptional service.”

Pappageorge said until the union is prepared to settle “a fair contract” and increase wages within the first three years, negotiations will be on the streets. Virgin Hotel workers picketed outside the property Thursday afternoon.

“These Wall Street Banks and private equity firms are used to running over workers everywhere else. That just can’t happen here,” Pappageorge said. “We’ve been willing to move; the company is not, and unfortunately, they are forcing these workers into strike preparations.”

The resort added that Thursday’s picket would not affect its operations. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the union’s claim that they refused to offer wage increases within the first three years of the new contract.

The union’s “negotiation committee,” which is partially made up of resort employees, would decide on a potential strike. Pappageorge says that a vote could be upcoming.

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