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January 15, 2007
A Letter from
the IUGE President
Dear Fellow Dealers:
For those of you who do not know me, I am Tony
Badillo, President of the International Union of Gaming
Employees (IUGE) and a former dealer at the Sands Hotel
for over 40 years. I am also a resident of Las Vegas for
50 years.
I don’t know how many of you remember the
conflict at the Las Vegas Hilton in the late 1980’s when
80 dealers were fired because they were 45 years or older.
The dealers brought the Hilton to court and won the court
case and settled with the Las Vegas Hilton. That same
management team “left” the Hilton and then took over at
the Sands Hotel, but in 1989, before they took over, I put
together a group called the Nevada Casino Dealer
Association.
This was a big
surprise for the new Sands management team because now we
had in place an association of dealers who were willing to
stand together, without fear and fight for their rights.
They quickly came to realize that this new association of
dealers could have the power to stop the new management
team from doing at the Sands what they tried to do at the
Las Vegas Hilton. They found out who was the leader and
called the 25 dealers up to the management office, me
included, to tell us that they were conducting performance
evaluations and they knew that many improvements were
needed.
I was the last one to be called in and they placed
before me a paper listing all the improvements I needed to
make, and demanded that I sign the paper. Of course, it
was just a set-up to get a paper trail into my file so
they could later fire me without repercussions. I gave
them back the paper and said, “Gentlemen, apparently you
have more than enough reasons to fire me, so fire me.”
The casino manager said, “No one wants to fire you.”
“Well, then,” I said, “find someone else to sign this
paper because I refuse to sign it,” and I walked out of
the office and left them with their jaws scraping the
carpet.
The association saved 48 jobs at the Sands
Hotel that day and that so-called management team knew we
weren’t pushovers. From that moment on, though, I was
watched closely by every floorman and shift boss for any
possible mistake. I was harassed in every possible way;
by management changing my shift; my days off; placing me
to deal at a table facing the wall, and anything else they
could think of. I took it all in stride.
As you all know that when you go up against a
hotel and you disagree with their policies, you
automatically become labeled as a troublemaker, even
though you are just standing up for your rights. However,
if you show fear, and don’t act collectively as a group,
then management knows that they “have” you.
Remember what Ben Franklin said to John
Hancock at the signing of the Declaration of Independence:
“We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we
shall all hang separately.” Either dealers stand firmly
together or they will start firing us one by one to create
fear among us. And fear, my fellow dealers, is our enemy.
Similarly, with the Steve Wynn issue, he
declared war against you dealers by taking control of your
tips and stealing them to pay his floormen. You are doing
nothing more than fighting for what is yours and your
right to control your own money. This is unquestionably
war and in war there is no room for fear. There could be
the possibility of harassment and termination, but as in
any war, we must expect casualties. When this plays out,
those who were unlawfully disciplined will be hired back
or otherwise compensated.
The primary issue we must keep in mind is that
we are fighting an injustice that the casino has imposed
upon us. We are right and they are wrong. We must do what
must be done to make Wynn stop his unlawful behavior. The
only people who can make him do this are the dealers
themselves. The International Union of Gaming Employees
(IUGE) are behind you 100% in fighting the Wynn-Las Vegas
abuse.
Soon we will be passing out the representation
cards for you to sign, but unless you stand up and stand
together and sign those cards, there will be no battle to
fight. Remember, the officers of the IUGE can lead the
way, we can mount protests in the streets, issue news
releases, print and distribute flyers, encourage those
that have been threatened and humiliated to report their
complaints to the NLRB, we can provide guidance to our
legislators to change our laws, we can be the generals,
but we need you, the troops, behind us. With you behind
us there is nothing we cannot accomplish.
Tony Badillo
President, IUGE
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