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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA —A walkout by hundreds of hospitality workers at a casino near the Las Vegas Strip entered its second day with union members willing to undergo the financial hardships of being out of work as they wait for a new contract.
The work stoppage launched Friday at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is the first open-ended strike in 22 years for the Culinary Workers Union, the largest labor union in Nevada, with about 60,000 members. Union members were on the picket line again Saturday.
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.
The strike comes 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.
After the breakthrough deals last November, the Culinary Union quickly reached similar agreements for the rest of its members at major hotel-casinos on the Strip, downtown and at off-Strip properties - except for Virgin Hotels. The contracts on the Strip alone cover more than 40,000 workers.
While the union pays striking workers $500 per week for picketing shifts for at least five days, union members at the picket line Friday said that they were expecting financial pain while being out of work.
Lee McNamara, a lead dining room cook, said he took a second job for about eight months to save money in anticipation of the strike.
"A strike is hurtful to everybody, but it was a last resort for us," McNamara said. "We didn't have anything else we could do. The company wasn't coming our way, and they weren't seeing it our way and they haven't really budged much."
Diana Monjaraz, who works in housekeeping, expects hard times until a new contract comes.
"You have to suffer a little bit to win sometimes," Monjaraz said. "You don't get things handed to you right away."
Both the union and Virgin Hotels said negotiations stalled because of disagreements over pay.
"Workers overwhelmingly have chosen a strong Culinary Union contract that guarantees their benefits as the way they want to be protected," said Bethany Khan, a spokesperson for the union. "Hundreds of workers are on strike themselves to win these protections."
Virgin Hotels Las Vegas said it was committed to protecting the jobs of workers by ensuring the continued operation of the property. It also said the union "has bargained in bad faith - repeatedly refusing to engage in meaningful negotiations with Virgin Hotels Las Vegas." Culinary Union members last went on strike in 2002 for 10 days at the Golden Gate hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas.