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

Las Vegas, Nevada — 

Picketing continued Sunday extracurricular a hotel-casino adjacent the Las Vegas Strip that remained unfastened with nary talks scheduled betwixt absorption and national members striking for a caller contract.

Workers are seeking a wage rise and benefits comparable to pacts reached past twelvemonth astatine different resorts.

The walkout by the Culinary Workers Union laborers astatine Virgin Hotels Las Vegas comes a week earlier the 2nd yearly Las Vegas Grand Prix is owed to gully hundreds of thousands of fans for Formula 1 racing connected the Strip and adjacent streets. It's the archetypal open-ended onslaught since 2002 for the largest labour national successful Nevada, which has astir 60,000 members.

No caller negotiations were scheduled, said national spokesperson Bethany Khan and Terri Maruca, media typical for Virgin Hotels, proprietor of the 1,500-room property.

Maruca said the institution has fielded applications from much than 600 prospective declaration and impermanent workers since Friday. The national pays striking workers $500 per week for astatine slightest 5 days for picketing shifts.

Guest country attendants, cocktail and nutrient servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders and laundry workers are among those carrying picket signs astatine the property, wherever workers besides staged a 48-hour occupation enactment past May to telephone for Virgin Hotels to hold to a caller five-year woody with expanded benefits and accrued wages.

Other casinos connected and disconnected the Strip reached deadline agreements with the national conscionable earlier the Formula 1 contention a twelvemonth ago, with contracts containing wage increases of astir 32% implicit 5 years for tens of thousands of workers astatine properties including the Bellagio, Paris Las Vegas, MGM Grand and Caesars Palace.

In a connection connected Sunday, Virgin Hotels called those contracts "economically unsustainable" and said it wants a "reasonable agreement" for its 1,710 employees. It has accused national leaders of refusing to prosecute successful "meaningful negotiations."

Culinary Union members past went connected onslaught successful 2002 for 10 days astatine the Golden Gate hotel-casino successful downtown Las Vegas.