MEDIA ADVISORY FOR:
Saturday, November 30, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
Culinary Union hosts Thanksgiving dinner for Virgin Las Vegas strikers on the picket line
Las Vegas, NV - On the 16th day of the on-going strike, the Culinary Union is hosting a holiday dinner for Virgin Las Vegas strikers. This Thanksgiving holiday, the Culinary Union is proud to stand with hundreds Virgin Hotel Las Vegas strikers and provide continued support and resources as workers continue their fight for a new 5-year union contract.
WHO:
*Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for Culinary Union
*Diana Valles, President of the Culinary Union
*Hundreds of Virgin Las Vegas strikers
WHAT: Thanksgiving holiday dinner for Virgin Las Vegas strikers
WHEN: Saturday, November 30, 2024 from 5pm-7pm
WHERE: Virgin Las Vegas (4455 Paradise Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89169)
WHY:
For the first time in over 22 years, the Culinary Union has launched its longest-lasting strike in more than two decades, taking 700 hospitality workers at Virgin Las Vegas out in an open-ended strike that began November 15th at 5:00 AM as workers continue fighting for a new 5-year union contract. Since the strike began, hundreds of striking workers and union members have maintained 24/7 picket lines at every entrance and exit along Harmon Avenue and Paradise Road around the casino property.
One week into the strike, 57 Culinary Union members and striking workers from Virgin Las Vegas were arrested November 21, 2024 in an act of peaceful civil disobedience. The labor demonstration drew hundreds of striking workers and union members.
“This holiday season, the Culinary Union is proud to stand with hundreds Virgin Hotel Las Vegas strikers and provide continued support and resources as they continue their fight for a new union contract. Workers have waited 18 months without a new contract, and their patience has run out. The company has refused to settle a contract with fair wage increases and that’s unacceptable,” said Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union. “Virgin Las Vegas workers are strong, and we will stand alongside them until they win the fair contract they deserve. The message to anyone considering staying at Virgin Hotels is clear: Check out. Every other hotel on the Las Vegas Strip has professional staff who have settled contracts and respect their workers. Virgin is relying on temporary workers, which is unprofessional and unfair. Strong union health care, fair wages, and job security are worth fighting for, and the Culinary Union will do whatever it takes to win.”
The contract at Virgin Las Vegas expired on June 1, 2023, and for months, the Culinary Union has been reaching out to locals, venue performers, customers, investors, company board members, gaming regulators, and community allies about the strike.As the strike continues, the Culinary Union is urging tourists, venue performers, elected officials, and community allies to stay out of Virgin Las Vegas and is actively encouraging customers to cancel their reservation, check out of the property, choose a union accommodation, and eat at union restaurants.
COMING TO LAS VEGAS AND PLANNING TO STAY AT VIRGIN LAS VEGAS? Ahead of Wrangler NFR Las Vegas 2024 (December 5-14), Las Vegas Bowl (December 27), AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (Jan 22-25), 2025 Academic Surgical Congress (February 11-13), Exchange 2025 (March 23-26), and Directions North America 2025 (April 7-9), the Culinary Union is asking locals, elected officials, political candidates, conferences/conventions, and tourists to support hospitality workers by not patronizing the Virgin Las Vegas, which is in an active labor dispute.
Culinary Union condemns Virgin Las Vegas for hiring temporary scab workers - off the street - to clean guest rooms, work in the hotel, cook meals, and serve guests drinks during the strike. Customers deserve better - high quality service provided by trained and trusted professionals. Culinary Union encourages guests to demand that their rooms be cleaned by union professionals and to leave honest reviews online about their personal experience during the strike.
Culinary and Bartenders Unions strikers are from all major areas of operations at Virgin Las Vegas, including housekeeping, food and beverage departments, and the following unionized restaurants: Casa Calavera, Funny Library Coffee Shop, Juice Bar, The Bar at Commons Club, The Kitchen at Commons Club, and The Shag Room.
Virgin Hotels is a lifestyle hospitality brand that Sir Richard Branson's global Virgin Group has pioneered for over 50 years. Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is owned by the LiUNA Pension Fund of Eastern and Central Canada (LPFCEC), Fengate Asset Management, and Juniper Capital. LPFCEC, based in Oakville, Ontario, has over C$11 billion in assets; over 150,000 members in Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, and Prince Edward Island; and over 27,500 pensioners and beneficiaries. Fengate, with offices in Toronto and Houston, is a real asset and growth equity investor in North America. Juniper, headed by managing partners Jay Wolf, Alex Krys, and Armand Reale, makes direct investments in real estate and advises a variety of institutional clients with a focus on value creation. In August, Nuveen Green Capital, a subsidiary of Nuveen and a TIAA company, agreed to give Virgin Las Vegas $190 million in financing. TIAA serves non-profit institutions & their employees. Nuveen manages assets for clients including its parent company TIAA.
In negotiations, the Culinary and Bartenders Unions have been winning historic victories for workers including:
*Securing the largest wage increases ever negotiated in the Culinary Union’s 89-year-history. The total compensation won by the Culinary Union for over 50,000 is approximately $3 billion over the total five-year contract. Every worker will be getting a 10% wage increase in the first year and a total of 32% in raises over the life of the new contract. The average Culinary Union member earned about $28 an hour (including their benefits) under the previous contract, and by the end of this new five-year contract, the average Culinary Union member will be earning about $37 an hour (including their benefits).
*Reducing workload and steep housekeeping room quotas, daily room cleaning, and establishing the right for guest room attendants to securely work in set areas.
*Providing the best on-the-job safety protections for all classifications, including safety committees, expanding the use of safety buttons to more workers, penalties if safety buttons don’t work, enforcing mandatory room checks for employee and public safety, and tracking sexual harassment, assault, and criminal behavior by customers.
*Strengthens existing technology protections to guarantee advanced notification when new technology is introduced (which would impact jobs) including technologies with artificial intelligence, increases service recognition pay and extended health care and pension fund contributions for workers who are laid off because of new technology, requires training for new jobs created by technology, introduces the right to bargain over technology that tracks the location of employees, requires notification and opportunity to bargain regarding data sharing, and establishes right to compensation for tipped employees if necessary infrastructure for technology fails resulting in a tipped employee who is unable to do their job.
*Extending recall rights so that workers have more job security and have the right to return to their jobs in the event of another pandemic or economic crisis for up to three-years.
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ABOUT CULINARY UNION:
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
The Culinary Union, through the Culinary Health Fund, is one of the largest healthcare consumers in the state. The Culinary Health Fund is sponsored by the Culinary Union and Las Vegas-area employers. It provides health insurance coverage for over 145,000 Nevadans, the Culinary Union’s members, and their dependents.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages. We are proud to have helped over 18,000 immigrants become American citizens and new voters since 2001 through our affiliate, The Citizenship Project.
The Culinary Union has a diverse membership which is 55% women and 60% immigrants. The demographics of Culinary Union members are approximately: 54% Latinx, 18% white, 15% Asian, 12% Black, and less than 1% Indigenous Peoples.
Culinary Union members work as: Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry, and kitchen workers. The Culinary Union has been fighting and winning for working families in Nevada for 89 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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