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Letter
# 60
Subj:
Especially for Tropicana Las Vegas
Dealers
Date: 01/14/2001 6:44:11 AM Pacific Standard
Time
From: # 60-Atlantic City
To: bronxguy37@aol.com
ESPECIALLY
FOR TROPICANA LAS VEGAS DEALERS
The day of your union election is fast approaching and I was
wondering if any of you knew certain things that I think are
important in helping you make this very important decision. First
did you know that four and a half years ago the dealers at
Tropicana Atlantic City had a union campaign? I was there. Believe
me it was down right ugly at times. We were constantly being
tapped off of our games to go to mandatory meetings hosted by the
casino and their union busting attorneys.
A different anti-union flyer was waiting in the pit boss's hand
nearly every time we went on break. Shift managers would walk thru
our dealer's lounge and locker rooms tearing down the pro- union
flyers we taped up everywhere. Pit bosses, Floor people and upper
management were constantly telling us how much we stood to lose,
how the casino knew who was voting which way , how part timers
would lose their jobs, how dual raters wouldn't be allowed to dual
rate any more, how once we voted union there was no way to get out
of it if we weren't happy, how we would lose our medical benefits,
our 401Ks, our regular days off.
Everything and anything you can think of they told
us. The lies were constant and never ending. They marched groups
of dealers past the scheduling department on their way to the
voting booths to tell them how they wouldn't be able to have such
a flexible scheduling department helping them out anymore if they
voted yes. We even had Mandatory meetings with Dennis Gomes
himself. Listening to Dennis tell us "Give me a chance"
"I know things are bad and I want to fix them"
Listening to him blame the union because there was
all this stuff that he wanted to give us and now he couldn't
because we had petitioned for election. Speaking of Dennis I
wonder how many of you know that while he worked for the Taj Mahal
in Atlantic City there was an union movement there also. (at the
Taj Mahal he brought in movie production crews and made a video
set up like one of those infomercials you see where two people sit
behind a news desk and go to "live" interviews with
people giving testimonials on how bad the union is. And he sent
one to every dealers home. To bring the intimidation into their
living rooms. To scare them right in front of their wives,
husbands and children into voting no.)
Then he comes to Tropicana and he went through his second and now
is going through his third union movement. I wonder if he is using
the same tactics on you in as he used on us. Have you heard him
say "Give me a chance"? Let me tell you that we didn't
just wake up one day and decide that we were going to sign union
cards. We had meeting after meeting with management asking them to
fix the things that were wrong. Always with the same reply "
we're looking in to it" this went on for over 8 months before
a single card was signed. In the end we lost our election by 7
votes. Over 500 dealers and we lost by 7. But we weren't done.
The casino had broken so many rules and told so many lies that the
National Labor Relations Board awarded us a new election without
having to wait a year and without having to resign cards. The
number of violations that the casino was brought up on was
overwhelming especially when you consider that they were only from
the people willing to come forward with what the casino had done
to them. In the few months between votes the Tropicana
opened the second largest poker room in Atlantic City along with a
Keno and Simulcasting parlor. We had to let everybody vote. Casino
games, Poker, Keno and Simulcasting.
Even though each one was a separate department with separate
schedules, pay rates, and toke pools ( at the time we shared with
poker) Imagine Keno and horses voting with us and having a
starting salary of $8.50 per hour! In the very end we lost the
second election by 2 votes!! (OVER 700 VOTERS) Because the casino
had flooded the voting pool with people who had only been there a
few weeks and hadn't had a chance to see the unfair things that we
experience everyday.
Ask yourself; Why isn't this the first time that dealers have
tried to go union? Because the poor conditions exist at every
casino! Why do the casinos spend millions of dollars to stop us
and scare us into voting no? Because they know that they will
spend more if we vote YES! Why is there a union movement
everywhere Dennis Gomes goes???
Because
HIS CONTRACT pays him more money the higher the casino's profit
is, so if he has to pinch a corner here or there at the expense of
hundreds of dealers what does he care he'll make more money and so
will the casino. Enough dealers were intimidated at Tropicana
Atlantic City to give Dennis "his chance".
He never did anything with it! And he wont do anything with
it for you so don't give it to him. VOTE YES!!!
ITS THE ONLY WAY TO GET WHAT YOU, I AND EVERY OTHER DEALER IN THIS
COUNTRY DESERVES!!!
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