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Casino
Employee Alert!
September 21,
1999
Read no Further
If you are a casino dealer in Nevada and if you are
satisfied with your wages, working conditions and benefits, read
no further. If, however, you feel you are being shortchanged, read
on.
The labor pool available to sustain an adequate workforce
of dealers to keep Nevada's casinos humming along has always been
more than enough. That has been our problem. Casinos were able to
lose or terminate as many dealers as they wished, for whatever
reason, without consequences. There were always scores of new
applicants lining up for every opening. And, consistent with the
law of supply and demand, when supply exceeds demand, price falls.
And so, over the years, dealer's wages and benefits have not kept
pace with other industries. Wages have stagnated at or near
minimum wage levels; most casinos do not pay sick time, "no
work-no pay" is the standard; and, in the latest
sign of corporate greed, there is a direct attack on our toke box.
The attack I refer to is the action by The Resort At
Summerlin to group dealers and floor people together into a new
category of worker called "casino host". Not to be
confused with the commonly used title of executive casino host,
which, of course, has been in use for years. No, this is a brand
new position, created solely to enable this resort to lower
payroll costs. The starting pay for this
newly-created position is $7.75/hour plus a share of tokes. This
action does two things. One, instead of paying floor people
$18/hour, which is the average for the industry, they pay them
only $7.75/hour; and two, dealers tokes are diluted by the
increased "ways" on the split. We petitioned the Labor
Commission and the Gaming Control Board to reverse this policy;
both backed away from any
involvement. The Labor Commissioner said that this issue is for
the courts to decide. Summerlin insists their motives were to
improve their operation and to enable them to train floor people.
Other casinos, however, use dual-raters (part-time) floor persons,
but when they act as floor people, they get paid as floor people,
i.e. floor persons wages; when they deal, they get paid as
dealers, i.e. wages plus tokes.
Up till now dealers have accepted the wage and benefit
conditions without meaningful protest. And even now dealers may
accept this toke rip-off without protest, but then again, they may
not!
Remember this, this policy puts in jeopardy dealers, floorpersons
and other executive positions in the gaming industry. The Nevada
Casino Dealers Association (NCDA) has been trying to mobilize the
casino dealers to stand together and fight for the right to
control their own tokes. It has been a tough
struggle and not altogether successful. Now, with this new and
overt attack on our toke box we feel that the casinos have finally
given us the ammunition to wage a fight we can win. We must seek a
legal remedy in the courts.
Remember the words of Frederick Douglass: "Without
struggle, there can be no progress". So, let the struggle
begin, but remember, we need your financial support to wage this
court battle.
If you think this battle is worth waging, help us! Send $50, send
$100, send whatever you think is right, BUT SEND YOUR
CONTRIBUTION!
Please send your check or money order to:
NCDA
P.O. Box 71496
Las Vegas, NV 89170
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