Culinary Strike to End at Virgin, Just in Time for Porn Convention [Updated]

After months of amateur hour organized labor theater (including fake “arrests” and a karaoke night on the picket line), the Culinary union strike is done at Virgin Las Vegas.

A communication sent to union members (see below) says there will be a vote at noon on Jan. 22, 2025 to ratify a new contract. Anticipate lots of victory lapping by the union. Oy.

The settlement comes just in time for the porn convention to be held at the off-Strip resort. The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo happens Jan. 22-25, 2025. Viva Las Vegas.

Hear, hear.

That’s the whole story, really.

Nobody’s sharing the details of the contract and nobody really cares all that much, except for the people who are just happy this stupidity is over.

The strike commenced on Nov. 15, 2024.

The Culinary union’s strike against Virgin Las Vegas lasted 68 days, missing an opportunity for an epic AVN Adult Entertainment Expo joke by just one day. Was it too much to ask to let this thing go another day?

On a serious note, the behavior of picketers has been reprehensible and union shenanigans contributed zero to the resolution of this “negotiation.”

Finally.

This union’s leadership is the worst in America (we worked at the Writers Guild of America for nine years, so we’re familiar with real unions).

The bottom line of this labor dispute is Virgin Las Vegas doesn’t make money. You can’t get blood from a stone. The union pursued conflict rather than professionalism and productivity. The union hurt some of its biggest advocates (many members jumped ship, including shop stewards), and those relationships can’t really be fixed.

Culinary members are not well-served by its leadership, but good leaders of any kind are hard to come by at the moment.

Expect a vote approval of nearly 100% in the Culinary union’s parking lot tomorrow.

The terms of the contract are confidential. It’s unclear how union members are supposed to know how to vote without specifics of the deal unless they just blindly trust what the union tells them. You know, like what’s been happening every day since the strike began. (The union repeatedly refused to settle the strike through arbitration, and also refused to let members vote on the contract.)

Anticipate Virgin will play nice and talk about focusing on unity and all that.

Unions and labor negotiations are one of the most boring parts of Las Vegas, but not if you’re a server or bartender or housekeeper.

Let’s get back to having fun and letting Virgin see if it can work a miracle (the departure of Mohegan Sun could help) and come back from the brink of bankruptcy. All this nonsense didn’t help, at all.

Update (1/22/25): In a real shocker, union members voted 100% in support of the Virgin contract and the strike is officially over. As if you needed further evidence of how full of shit Culinary is, when was the last time any vote, of any kind, was 100% anything? Here are some of the deal points approved by union members.

As predicted, the union is claiming a “victory,” despite the fact the contract they approved is pretty much the same one offered by Virgin prior to the strike. Some of the numbers have been moved around, and if anything, Virgin has managed to get itself additional breathing room to try and right the ship financially.

While we originally reported the strike at Virgin lasted 68 days, we did not do the calculation inclusive of Jan. 22, 2025. That means the strike lasted (sort of) for 69 days, as reiterated by Culinary. Please note the joint statement about the resolution of the strike.

The same nimrods who have been calling Virgin guests “losers” and worse for the last two months, vandalizing the property, bullying entertainers and their own members (who didn’t support the strike), are now the heroes of the people and back to being pals with Virgin.

The union did get a big win with language in the contract that says workers will get $2,000 for every year of service if the resort closes. It’s an important part of the contract because if Virgin does under, the union can be remembered as having played a big part in making that happen.