Profitable Casino Offers Average Salaries of $9.50 and Cuts to Union Employees

While the rhetoric heats up on Beacon Hill, and unions promote the illusion of good paying jobs, the article below says it all.

Not only are jobs in the Gambling Industry, in Slot Barns, low wage, but a profitable Slot Barn is cutting benefits.

Let's be careful what we believe and promote on Beacon Hill.

The Union Employees, brought to testify in Gardner Auditorium by the unions were forced to acknowledge after squirming that starting pay was about $10 an hour.

San Pablo Casino workers irked over no raises
Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer


Casino San Pablo might be drawing all aces these days, but luck may have run out for its workers.

Cocktail waitresses, bartenders, floor walkers and other union members are locked in a contract stalemate with the tribe that owns the booming East Bay gambling hub.

At issue: the 350-member tribe earned over $100 million last year on gaming revenues, yet is refusing raises to its employees, whose average salaries are $9.50 an hour.

"It seems like they're turning their back on us," Isidoro Saravia-Ramos, 58, a dishwasher at the casino for 10 years, said through a translator. "We want the casino to succeed, but we as workers need to succeed, too."

The tribe offered a contract to its 200 union workers in May that included no raises and deep cuts in health insurance and other areas. New employees, for example, would start at 2002 wages and not be eligible for health insurance for a year.

Only four union members voted yes on the contract. The tribe then petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for help moving forward, but meanwhile negotiations with Unite Here Local 2850 remain at a standstill and tensions are high.

The casino may be flush with profits, but the contract offer is fair, said Doug Elmets, spokesman for the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, the Santa Rosa tribe that's run the casino since 2001.

Health insurance costs have increased 30 percent annually the past few years, he said. The tribe cannot afford to fund health insurance indefinitely for its employees and their families if rates continue to climb, he said.

"The union wants the entire health care policy to remain intact, but they also want raises," he said. "We're trying to find a balance."

If anything, the tribe has been more than generous to its workers, providing living-wage jobs in an area that's perennially depressed, he said. The wages are in line with most other casinos in California and, for most employees, higher than the $8-an-hour minimum wage mandated by the state.

But that's not enough, union leaders said. Many of the workers are paid so little they're forced to rely on public assistance or work second jobs.

Saravia-Ramos, for example, repairs cars in his off hours. His co-worker, Eddie Johnson, 65, teaches special education on his days off. He'd teach full time, but the school district did not offer him health insurance.

"I figure I have to stand up," Johnson said, referring to his activism in the union. "No raise? That's unacceptable to me, knowing how much money they make."

As a sovereign nation, the tribe does not pay taxes and its finances are private, but 7 percent of the gaming revenues go to the city of San Pablo every year to offset the costs of police, road repair and other city services. In 2010, the tribe gave San Pablo $12.2 million, which amounts to 60 percent of the city's general fund and is enough to save San Pablo from the layoffs that have afflicted many cities in the Bay Area.

The city is very supportive of the casino, but its employees need to be treated fairly, particularly because many live in San Pablo and rely on city programs for low-income residents, said City Councilman Leonard McNeil.

"I'd think indigenous people would have some sense of justice and equity and some compassion for working people," he said. "But it's a fine line because we want the tribe to do well."

The tribe is planning to build a housing development in Sonoma County for its members, who currently live scattered in the Santa Rosa area, Elmets said.

"The tribe respects its employees and the employees respect the tribe. Now we want to find a compromise that works for the employees, the union and the tribe."