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Atlantic City Casino Workers Standing Firm for Fair Contract |
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Two years after voting for the UAW, gaming employees at casinos in Atlantic City, N.J., still don’t have contracts. But they are standing firm in support of their freedom to bargain.
Management at Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino still refuses to bargain with the union despite a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling last year that management engaged in unfair labor practices. The NLRB ordered the casino to negotiate in good faith, but that hasn’t happened, the union says.
Meanwhile, the Trump Plaza casino workers are living paycheck to paycheck, some of them without health insurance coverage. Yet Donald Trump, the chairman and largest shareholder in Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., which owns the Trump Plaza, made $32 million in 2007.
You can learn more and join the effort to get a fair deal for Atlantic City casino workers here.
UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn says:
It’s important that management respect the principle of majority rule by sitting down to bargain with workers who won a fair election and won the right to negotiate with their employer.
Trump Plaza is just one of the casinos where management refuses to bargain. Workers at Bally’s and Caesars casinos in Atlantic City voted overwhelmingly in July to authorize a strike if they are unable to reach a contract agreement with management.
Says Joe Ashton, director of UAW Region 9, which includes New Jersey:
The real conflict here is between workers who want a union and an employer who refuses to bargain.
Two years is too long to wait between an election and bargaining. That’s one of the reasons members of our union are working hard to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The arbitration provisions of the bill would prevent situations like this and encourage both sides to come to the bargaining table to reach fair settlements.
The legislation provides the mediation and arbitration assistance to help settle a contract when a company and a newly certified union cannot agree on a contract after three months.
Marybeth Lichholt, a dealer at Trump Plaza for 22 years, says workers are determined to get a fair deal:
The majority of my co-workers remain in support of our union and we’re confident we are going to prevail and get a contract. We overwhelmingly voted in a fair election for union representation. Trump Plaza needs to respect our rights.
The latest obstacle to fair contracts for the casino workers comes in the form of a petition filed last week with the NLRB Region 4 to decertify the UAW as the dealers’ representative at Trump Plaza. The UAW is confident the action will not succeed. Bunn pointed out that 68 percent of workers at Trump Plaza voted for the union in 2007:
Thirty percent is just about the same number of people who voted against forming a union two years ago.
We believe the next vote at Trump Plaza should be on a fair contract proposal that will benefit all workers.
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