By Emil McLeod
Hundreds of workers with the Culinary Workers Union (CWU) at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas are entering the second week of their ongoing strike, the first such strike by the union in Las Vegas since 2002. Housekeepers, bellhops, servers, and porters are taking part in the strike and are demanding a new five-year contract that includes wage increases and improved benefits. Last year the CWU, representing some 40,000 other workers at hotels located along the Las Vegas strip, secured a 32% wage increase, with a 10% raise in the first year. The 700 workers at Virgin Hotels were the lone exception as they did not receive a new contract.
Virgin Hotels is owned by the international monopoly Virgin Group, a British conglomerate that operates in the sectors of communications, music, hospitality, travel, and gambling, among other industries. The monopolies have been increasing work tempo while reducing staffing, using the excuse of supposedly temporary Covid-19 measures in the hospitality sector while wages stagnate.
The strike is occurring concurrently with the ongoing strikes of hotel workers in cities across the country. CWU has pledged to set up 24/7 picket lines around hotel property in a visible attempt to deter guests from booking reservations, and to instead frequent other unionized establishments not on strike. The workers staged a sit-in in the middle of a busy street outside the hotel on November 21st , as a part of their picket, that led to the arrest of 57 workers.
Virgin Hotels erected temporary walls around hotel property so that spectators could not see or interact with the striking workers, and blasted loud music from inside the hotel to drown out the chants and sounds from the strikers outside. Workers interviewed by local monopoly media have noted that the underhanded tactics employed by Virgin Hotels have increased local public support for the workers’ cause. One striking server said, “They tried to make it where they drowned us out, but they just made more noise and brought more attention to us.”
According to the CWU, Virgin Hotels has been hiring scabs to staff the hotel during the strike, offering to pay scabs double what their full-time employees make. The union has noted that these scabs are not trained or certified to perform the jobs they are hired for, potentially endangering guests and other workers. Of note is the fact that a minority investor in Virgin Hotels is the Laborers’ Union Pension Fund of Eastern and Central Canada (LiUNA), which has pursued an aggressive investment strategy in real estate to supplement low returns from the stock market, therefore indirectly funding the employment of scabs during the hotel workers’ strike in collusion with the monopoly Virgin Hotels. While Virgin Hotels can find reasons and money to pay for scabs and temporary walls, they refuse to increase the pay of the workers they exploit daily in the interests of maintaining their exorbitant profits.
image: CWU workers on strike, CWU local 226 social media
