Hundreds of hotel workers go on strike at a casino near the Las Vegas Strip

LAS VEGAS (AP) — 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!”

"24/7 picket lines around the property” would be in place during the strike, the union said in a news release, urging customers to cancel reservations or check out and to choose a union accommodation.

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.

“The Virgin Las Vegas’ proposal is miles apart and is an insult to every worker — which is why the committee voted unanimously to refuse to settle for a second-class contract,” Pappageorge said. “Workers at Virgin Las Vegas deserve a first-class contract with fair wage increases, and they are organized and ready to strike for it.”

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.

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 — with the exception of Virgin Hotels. The contracts on the Strip alone cover more than 40,000 workers.

Bethany Khan, a spokesperson for the union, said Virgin Hotels is the “final holdout.” The union's contract covering about 700 employees there expired in June.

The union says Virgin Hotels does not want to give its workers any wage increases during the first three years of a new five-year contract.

“We are worth more than zero wage increases,” Merla Paramo, a casino porter, said in a statement provided by the union.

Virgin Hotels said Thursday in a statement that it agreed to some wage increases before the fourth year of a new contract, but the union declined the proposal. Virgin Hotels did not provide specifics on its proposal.

“Our dedication to our team members’ well-being and achieving sustainable performance at our property remains steadfast, and we are fully committed to finding a fair resolution that is in their best interest,” the statement reads.

While Friday's walkout is far smaller in scale than the strikes planned for last year on the Strip, disruptions are still likely because of Virgin Hotels' location. The 1,500-room property is just off the Strip and along a common route to the tourist corridor from the city's international airport.

The hotel-casino sits on a recognizable lot where an 80-foot(24-meter) neon guitar sign stood for decades. It was removed in 2017 after the Hard Rock closed.

Culinary Union members last went on strike in 2002 for 10 days at the Golden Gate hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas.

FILE - Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is illuminated on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, in Las Vegas. (Benjamin Hager/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. retail sales rose last month at a healthy pace in the latest sign that consumer spending is driving the economy's steady growth.

Retail purchases rose 0.4% from September to October, the Commerce Department said Friday, a solid increase though less than the previous month's robust 0.8% gain. Auto dealers, restaurants and electronics stores all reported higher sales.

Last month's rise in retail purchases suggests that the economy is growing briskly again in the current October-December quarter, after having expanded at a sturdy 2.8% annual rate in the previous quarter. Since peaking at 9.1% more than two years ago, inflation has sunk to near-optimal levels. And Americans' take-home pay, on average, has surpassed inflation for about 18 months.

Still, the post-pandemic inflation spike has left prices about 20% higher than they were three years ago and dimmed Americans' outlook on the economy. That was a key reason why Donald Trump was able to capitalize on public discontent with the Biden-Harris administration and recapture the White House in last week's election.

Yet despite high price levels, Trump will inherit an economy in which spending is strong, growth is solid and unemployment low.

Other recent economic reports have also pointed to a still-healthy economy. In a sign that households, whose purchases drive most of the economy, will continue spending, the Conference Board’s most recent consumer confidence index posted its biggest monthly gain since 2021. The proportion of consumers who expect a recession in the next 12 months dropped to its lowest point since the board first posed that question in 2022.

At the same time, the nation’s once-sizzling job market has lost some momentum. The government has estimated that America’s employers added just 12,000 jobs in October, though that total that economists say was held down by the effects of strikes and hurricanes that left many workers temporarily off payrolls.

Friday’s retail sales report arrives as retailers are poised to enter the start of the critically important holiday shopping season in less than two weeks. Analysts envision a solid holiday shopping season, though perhaps not as robust as last year’s, with many shoppers under pressure from overall still-high prices despite the easing of inflation.

The National Retail Federation has predicted that shoppers will increase their spending in November and December by between 2.5% and 3.5% over the same period a year ago. During the 2023 holiday shopping season, spending had surged by a stronger 3.9% from 2022.

D’Innocenzio reported from New York.

FILE - A shopper considers a MacBook Air on display in a Costco warehouse on Sept. 19, 2024, in Lone Tree, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - Shoppers peruse merchandise at a Kohl's department store in Ramsey, N.J., Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)