|
UAW expands union drive for
dealers at Atlantic City casinos
By
DONALD WITTKOWSKI Staff Writer, (609) 272-7258
Published: Tuesday, February 20, 2007
ATLANTIC CITY — One week after winning government approval
for an election at Caesars Atlantic City, the United Auto
Workers union is expanding its union drive to other
casinos and eventually may target every gaming hall in
town.
The UAW has filed a petition to represent dealers at Trump
Plaza Hotel and Casino and is collecting union pledge
cards at the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, Resorts
Atlantic City and possibly other casinos, a gaming
executive said.
“We're hearing of card signings at virtually every
property,” said Anthony Rodio, regional president of the
Hilton and its sister casino Resorts.
Elizabeth Bunn, the UAW's secretary-treasurer, would not
divulge whether the union is trying to organize dealers at
every casino, but noted that the UAW stands ready to help
workers.
“The whole genesis of the organizing drive comes from
workers who want a union. At their request, we're
assisting them through the process,” Bunn said in an
interview Monday.
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board in
Philadelphia approved the UAW's petition for a union
election involving 860 dealers, cashiers, keno workers and
simulcast employees at Caesars. The UAW will win the right
to represent the Caesars workers if it receives the
necessary “50 percent plus one person” vote during the
March 17 election.
The UAW filed another petition last week with the NLRB
seeking approval for an election at Trump Plaza. The Plaza
has about 500 to 600 full- and part-time dealers.
Trump spokesman Tom Hickey said the UAW asked the Plaza to
bypass an election and unilaterally give it the right to
represent the dealers, but the request was refused by the
casino. The NLRB will now schedule a hearing to consider
the UAW's petition and decide whether to hold an election
at the Plaza.
“We haven't made any declarative statement about that, but
it will be part of our dialogue with employees,” Hickey
said when asked whether Trump would fight the union drive.
Although other unions repeatedly have failed to unionize
Atlantic City casino dealers in the past, the UAW is
expressing confidence in this campaign because it has
experience representing dealers at three Detroit casinos.
The UAW is best known as the union for Detroit autoworkers
at General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler.
The UAW's policy is to have at least 60 percent of the
workers sign pledge cards symbolizing their support for
the union before a formal petition is submitted to the
NLRB seeking an election.
Rodio, however, said at least 100 dealers at Hilton and
Resorts believe they were “misled” into signing union
cards and now want to revoke their support for the UAW.
“The employees want to sign revocation cards,” Rodio said.
“The reason they're giving us is that they feel they were
misled. They were given promises and information that were
not true.”
Rodio faxed a letter Monday to the UAW office in Fort
Washington, Pa., asking the union to guarantee that it
would not disclose the names of any worker who signed a
revocation card. Rodio wrote that he was reluctant to
divulge those names to the UAW without such a guarantee
for fear the workers “will be threatened and subjected to
intimidation and coercion” by union supporters.
Angered by Rodio's remarks, Bunn denied that the UAW would
single out any worker who did not support the union.
“We do not engage in any of the behavior described in the
letter by Mr. Rodio,” she said. “We resent the
accusation.”
Altogether, the Hilton has about 575 dealers and Resorts
has 550. Rodio argued that the UAW would add an
unnecessary layer of bureaucracy between the dealers and
management.
“I don't think we need a third party to come between us.
We're like family,” he said. “I'd hate to lose that and
have something come between us.”
About a third of the 45,000-member work force at Atlantic
City's 11 casinos is already represented by Local 54 of
UNITE-HERE, the gaming industry's largest and most
powerful labor union.
Atlantic City's casino dealers, though, are not unionized.
Attempts to unionize them in the past failed, including a
2004 campaign by Teamsters Local 331 of Pleasantville
targeting Caesars, Bally's and Hilton. Other union drives
by the Teamsters, the United Food & Commercial Workers and
Local 137 of the Sports Arena Employees all fell short.
Rodio said dealers should not be unionized because it
would disrupt the casinos' flexibility to use them as both
frontline workers and supervisors, depending on the
scheduling needs.
“We can't have a union member one day and a supervisor the
next,” he said.
To e-mail Donald Wittkowski at The Press:
DWittkowski@pressofac.com
Source:
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/atlantic_city/story/7224666p-7077892c.html
|
