
The longest workers strike in decades in Las Vegas finally ended this week. Two months ago, some 700 Culinary Union workers at Virgin Las Vegas walked out on their positions. This week, a deal was unanimously agreed upon between the union officials, members, and the operators of the casino resort.
The terms of the deal were not released to the public. The union had been seeking a pay rise in line with the 30% over five years that its other members received in 2023 from Las Vegas Strip casino operators. But Virgin Las Vegas consistently said it couldn’t afford to pay the same.
Whether the agreed-upon pay raise matched that or not, all parties must now be happy the 68-day strike is at an end.
The two-month battle was an acrimonious one, with workers holding a 24/7 picket line outside the casino hotel. In response, Virgin operators took a heavy handed approach, several times sending in security to dismantle infrastructure on the picket lines, and also putting up walls and hedges to block guests’ view of the striking workers.
Both parties will be looking to move forward from this point, they said in a joint press release.
“Virgin Hotels Las Vegas and the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 have come to an agreement on the terms upon which they are prepared to settle their new Collective Bargaining Agreement,” the press release read.
“Virgin Hotels Las Vegas and the Culinary and Bartenders Unions are pleased to be moving past their contract negotiations, as each looks forward to fostering a positive and collaborative working relationship for the benefit of all team members at the property.”
The Strike
The 68-day strike began on November 15, 2024, although rumblings of discontent had been ongoing since the back end of 2023. The previous union-approved contract expired in June 2023, and Virgin Hotels was among the last casinos in Sin City to have not renegotiated a new one.
The powerful Culinary Union Local 226 chapter that year won a 32% pay raise over five years for thousands of Nevada workers. New contracts were agreed upon with the major Las Vegas Strip casino resort operators hours before a strike deadline, narrowly avoiding a mass-scale walkout shortly before the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Virgin Las Vegas owners, a consortium of developers, asset managers, and investment firms licensed to use the Virgin Hotels brand maintained throughout the latest strike that it could not afford the same contracts as the bigger Las Vegas Strip casinos.
The strike was supported by Democratic politicians in Nevada, including Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Representative Dina Titus (D-1). Both visited the picket lines during the two-month action. Several acts also canceled shows at Virgin Las Vegas, although others did not.
Workers also alleged the casino of sabotaging its picket infrastructure, and the union criticized it for bringing in temporary workers to cover striking employees’ shifts.
For its part, the casino accused the union of acting in bad faith and refusing to negotiate. It offered to go to third-party arbitration to settle the dispute at one point, a proposal the union soundly rejected.
During the strike, Virgin Las Vegas also had to deal with changing the operator of its casino. The gambling section of the casino hotel property was previously run by the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut. It will now be run by a new company set up by the resort’s president and CFO.
The Resolution
Neither side revealed terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. This suggests some sort of compromise on the deal, but both have remained tight-lipped on the specifics.
Union officials and Virgin Las Vegas management agreed to the deal on Tuesday evening after previously seeing weeks of stalemate, with neither side returning to the table. Striking workers then voted unanimously in favor of the deal on Wednesday morning. That brought to an end the longest union strike in Sin City, surpassing 2002’s 10-day workers’ walkout at the Golden Gate Casino in downtown Las Vegas.
“Parties are committed to the resolution of our dispute and to maintaining a union standard at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas that provides for its team members’ families and fosters a better community for all,” the joint statement finished.

David is an online casino expert who specializes in online slots and boasts over 10 years experience writing about iGaming. He has written for a wide range of notable publications, including eSports Insider and WordPlay Magazine.
David graduated Derby University with a BA Degree in English Literature and Creative Writing.