Atlantic City Union Casino Workers Face Poverty

Atlantic City Union workers were brought to Massachusetts to testify before the Ways & Means Committee Hearing and praise the great pay and benefits provided by casinos.

Only one Senator asked what the starting pay was. After hesitation, the timid response was about $10 an hour.

Resorts, Atlantic City: Anti-Union Pay Cuts
As poverty rises in NJ, cuts target aid
Atlantic City

Labor tension is high at Atlantic City casinos
By Suzette Parmley

Inquirer Staff Writer

ATLANTIC CITY - With union contracts set to expire next month at nine casinos, tensions are simmering between workers and management.

And as the city's main industry continues to struggle - casino revenue was down 6.5 percent in July, a peak month for the resort, from a year ago, according to figures released Wednesday by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement - things could get real ugly real soon.

Unite Here Local 54 represents 14,000 casino and hotel workers in a citywide contract that covers Caesars, Bally's, Showboat, Harrah's Resort, Tropicana, A.C. Golden Nugget, Trump Plaza, Trump Taj Mahal, and ACH (formerly the A.C. Hilton). It expires Sept. 14. Borgata workers' contract is up for renewal next year. No contract is currently in force at Resorts Casino Hotel, which recently emerged from bankruptcy.

"The point is there is a new paradigm shift going in Atlantic City where we have billionaires like [new Resorts co-owner] Morris Bailey creating a business model that bases success . . . on putting his employees into poverty," said Robert McDevitt, Local 54's president. "That's a big shift away from the original promise of gaming in 1976. That was the promise of jobs and benefits, and now with the economic hard times, they are pulling back on that promise."

In a report released Monday, Local 54 said that because of wage cuts averaging more than 30 percent at Resorts, many of its members were now eligible for food stamps and Section 8 public housing.