(15 Nov 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Las Vegas – 15 November 2024
1. Strikers on picket line
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Lee McNamara, union member:
++COVERED++
“A strike is is hurtful to everybody. But it was a last resort for us. We didn’t we didn’t have anything else we could do."
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lee McNamara, union member:
"I mean, we’ve been doing the negotiations for a year and they really haven’t budged all that much from the original standpoint of zero. I mean, they threw a couple nickels at us, but that was about it.”
4. Strikers chanting
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Diana Monjaraz, union member:
“It is taking a toll financially, you know, especially with groceries, with gas, with mortgage, you know, insurance, everything being so high."
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Diana Monjaraz, union member:
++COVERED++
“We’re doing the same thing as the main, you know, the strip people. So what are they just saying? That our job is not enough? What we do is not enough? We do hope to come into an agreement at least halfway.”
7. Strike signs
8. Banner
9. Strikers by hotel sign
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Diana Monjaraz, union member:
++COVERED++
"You know, you have to suffer a little bit to win. Sometimes, you know, you don’t get things handed to you right away."
11. Line of picketers
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Renick, union member:
“Yeah I live by myself so I’m very reliant on me and how much I make”
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Renick, union member:
++COVERED++
“You know, this place makes money. This place has concerts and shows. I mean, it’s Las Vegas. Stuff’s happening all the time. I think they should just rip off the Band-Aid and give the people what they deserve.”
14. Shadow of picketers
15. Signs
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of hotel workers at a casino near the Las Vegas Strip went on strike just before dawn Friday after a long and highly publicized fight for a new contract.
The strike at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas marks the first open-ended strike in 22 years for the Culinary Workers Union, the largest labor union in Nevada, with about 60,000 members.
The union posted on the social platform X on Friday morning: “@VirginHotelsLV casino is ON STRIKE! Virgin hotel workers are walking out RIGHT NOW at Virgin Las Vegas for a fair contract! Stand with the workers, DO NOT CROSS THE STRIKE LINE!”
The company’s proposal worked out to an estimated $0.30 per year to wages over five years after deducting money for benefits, Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said in the news release.
Workers at the casino also walked off the job for 48 hours earlier this year as negotiations escalated, hoping to pressure Virgin Hotels to agree to a new five-year deal with increased wages and better benefits.
Housekeepers, cocktail and food servers, porters and bellhops were among those on the picket line Friday outside the hotel-casino, which was formerly the Hard Rock Las Vegas.
It comes exactly a year after casinos up and down the Strip narrowly avoided tens of thousands of hospitality workers walking off the job on the weekend the city was set to host its first Formula One race on the famous boulevard. But agreements were reached just before the union’s deadline for a strike, giving workers a roughly 32% salary increase over the life of the contract, including a 10% bump in pay in the first year.
Bethany Khan, a spokesperson for the union, said Virgin Hotels is the “final holdout.” The union’s contract covering about 700 employees there expired last June.
Video: Ty ONeil
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