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The Hazard
of Dealing
NEVADA CASINO
DEALERS ASSOCIATION
P.O. Box 71496
Las Vegas, Nevada 89104
(702) 474-9766
Fax: (702) 474-9767
November 29, 1999
Ms. Alexis Herman, Labor Secretary
Dept. of Labor
200 Constitution Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20210
Dear Secretary Herman:
We noted in our local newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal,
your intention to issue regulations to protect workers from
physical injury in the workplace and wish to commend you for it.
We also recognize the tremendous reactionary pressures poised to
neutralize your efforts and want you to know that you have many
allies throughout the nation.
In Nevada there are upwards of 45,000 casino dealers who suffer
greatly from physical injuries brought about by repetitive motion
and awkward posture activities related to their jobs.
Additionally, casino dealers and other casino workers are
subjected to illnesses directly related to the heavy and
continuous exposure to second-hand smoke in the casinos.
Ironically, these same workers who are exposed to workplace
injuries and to the debilitating effects of second-hand smoke are
required, when newly hired, to work as extras without health
insurance or any other benefits for up to two years before being
hired as regular employees. The fact that there are at least 39
states which have legal casino gambling presents a national aspect
to the plight of these workers; this is no longer simply a
"Nevada issue."
Business interests, and even some local newspapers, have asked:
"What is the need for these new OSHA regulations? Why have
additional inspectors and provide back pay and benefits for
injured workers? Isn't it true that the private employers already
have sufficient incentive to minimize these injuries and
illnesses?"
The answer is, obviously not! The old regulations and their levels
of enforcement as well as their dependence on voluntary solutions
have not worked. Workers are being injured every day and their
employers are turning their backs on them. In the gaming industry
there is a conspiracy of denial by employers to recognize any
relationship between these injuries and the work that causes them.
To further compound this injustice casino workers are suspended
without pay and even terminated when asking to be rotated to other
tasks or when not maintaining sufficient speed to satisfy
management. We have people willing to testify to these facts.
Employers have completely avoided this issue and have even gone so
far as to conspire with their peers to suppress employee
complaints and use economic pressure on the local medical
community to prevent the establishment of a causal relationship
between the workplace and the medical diagnosis. The hearings to
be held next year should carry the power to subpoena members of
the medical community as well as the employers themselves to
discover the depths of this corruption. We contend that with ever
more sophistication the employers are nudging towards RICO limits
by conspiring to coerce local doctors, their employees, and even
members of their own management staff to classify injuries as
non-work related when they know the opposite to be true.
This is no longer a matter of simply trying to get the employers
to do the right thing. It is a matter in which laws
may have been broken, rights denied, and due process aborted.
While we at the Nevada Casino Dealers Association have been aware
of these conditions for quite some time we have neither the
resources nor the expertise to achieve a proper outcome. We are
hopeful that your efforts will be successful. If there is anything
that we can do to help this process along, including statements,
affidavits, or testimony, please let us know. We will do our
best.
Sincerely,
Tony Badillo, President
Jack M. Lipsman, Vice President
Nevada Casino Dealers Association
Nevada Casino Dealers Association
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