The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 announced Friday that 700 non-gaming workers at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas will walk off their jobs Nov. 15 in what would be the labor organization’s first full-scale strike in 22 years.

The union issued a statement saying its negotiating committee voted this week to authorize the work stoppage at 5 a.m. next Friday. The union said it was seeking a bargaining session with management a day before the planned strike. The union is urging customers to cancel reservations at Virgin ahead of the strike. 

In an unsigned statement released late Friday, Virgin Hotels said it would take part in negotiations next Thursday.

The walkout is scheduled less than a week before the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix. Virgin sits less than a mile east of Grand Prix Plaza and has various sponsorship deals with the race. It is also a drop-off and pick-up point for race fans using a ride-sharing service.

Virgin’s contract with the Culinary and its affiliated Bartenders Local 165 expired in June 2023. It is the only Las Vegas property that has not agreed to a new five-year contract with the unions, which reached agreements with companies representing nearly 40 Strip, downtown and off-Strip resorts covering nearly 50,000 non-gaming workers.

In May, Virgin released a three-page letter from Kate Hay, chief human resources officer for resort owner JC Hospitality, that was sent to the union’s leadership, spelling out management's modified “last, best and final offer.”

Virgin Hotels said in its statement the Culinary “has yet to cooperate with our attempts to reach a good-faith agreement,” adding that its employees were not allowed to vote on a June 6 company proposal. Virgin wrote in the statement that it had never heard back from the union about a July 11 proposal until Friday when the strike notice was issued.

Virgin said the Culinary has refused to “move off a position that it knows is not economically viable for our off-Strip property, and that would negatively impact [employees].”

Meanwhile, Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said Culinary achieved the largest contracts in the union’s 89-year history in recent agreements with major Strip resorts, which included a 32 percent salary increase over five years and 10 percent in the first year. The increase amounted to a raise of $3.11 per hour in the first year and $9.21 per hour over the five years.

The average worker earned roughly $28 an hour under the previous contract — including health and pension benefits. By the end of the new five-year deal, the average worker will earn $37 an hour, including benefits — roughly $77,000 a year based on a 40-hour workweek.

The Culinary and Bartenders unions held a 48-hour strike in May to call attention to the stalled contract talks. The unions also had an informational picket line in front of the Virgin in March.

“In negotiations, the company has proposed [zero dollars] in wage increases for the first three years of a 5-year contract, which is unacceptable,” Pappageorge said in a statement. “Workers at Virgin Las Vegas deserve fair wage increases and they are organized and ready to strike for it.”

If the strike happens, it would be the first full-scale walkout at a hotel-casino since a 10-day strike in December 2002 at the Golden Gate Hotel-Casino downtown.

The property reopened in March 2021 after a one-year, $200 million renovation that converted the hotel-casino from Hard Rock Las Vegas. JC Hospitality is the managing partner of Virgin Las Vegas’ ownership consortium, which includes Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.

Virgin changed senior management in 2023 and it was announced May 7 that Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment would be replaced as the casino operator.

Updated at 5:12 p.m. on 11/8/2024 to include comments from Virgin Hotels Las Vegas