Atlantic City Tropicana anti-union tactics

Atlantic City Tropicana casino says contract negotiations are at impasse; Local 54 says not so
By DONALD WITTKOWSKI Staff Writer pressofAtlanticCity.com

ATLANTIC CITY — Tropicana Casino and Resort has declared an impasse in contract talks with the gaming industry’s largest labor union and vowed to implement its “last and final offer” with or without the union’s approval.

Tony Rodio, Tropicana’s president and chief executive officer, said Friday they are deadlocked in a dispute over payments to an employee pension plan. Tropicana wants to give workers the option of taking a lump-sum cash payment or have that same money deposited into a 401k plan instead of continuing with the current pension system.

The existing pension benefits accrued by current and retired Tropicana employees over the past 30 years remain intact and would not be affected by the company’s proposal to change the retirement payments in the future, Rodio said.

However, Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54 of UNITE-HERE, said there is no impasse and that the union stands ready to continue negotiations. He also maintained that Tropicana is trying to “scare” employees into accepting a contract that has unfavorable terms.

“We’re not going to allow Tropicana to misrepresent the facts here,” McDevitt said. “That’s clearly what they’re trying to do.”

McDevitt said the union likely would file complaints with the National Labor Relations Board and the courts to have a ruling on Tropicana’s threat to unilaterally impose contract terms by the end of February.

“They’re trying to rush to implement their proposal because they’re trying to bully the employees,” McDevitt said.

In the meantime, Rodio noted that Tropicana is preparing for the possibility of a strike, should the union take that route. But McDevitt said no strike or any other type of union action is planned at this time.

“There’s nothing planned, a strike or a job issue,” he said. “If they want to dispute this, we’ll go to court.”

McDevitt characterized Tropicana’s version of the dispute as “fantasyland.” He said the union has offered to resume negotiations, giving two open dates for later this month.

Rodio said Local 54 has not responded to emails and phone calls since the last face-to-face bargaining session on Dec. 5. But on Friday, McDevitt released a copy of a Jan. 31 letter that he sent to a Tropicana attorney discussing the contract negotiations at length, including the union’s belief that there is no impasse. The letter also says that the union would be available for negotiations on Feb. 18 or Feb. 25, or both.

About 1,000 Local 54 employees work at Tropicana. Rodio said letters were mailed Friday to those employees notifying them of the contract dispute and of Tropicana’s intention to implement its own terms, including the new plan for pension payments.

“I think this is a much better option for our employees,” he said. “The fact that Local 54 has chosen not to even enter into negotiations with us, frankly, is unfair to us and the employees.”

Over the union’s objections, Tropicana wants to withdraw from a pension plan with the National Retirement Fund, saying it is plagued by a $1.4 billion deficit and in critical condition. The federal government’s national plan to rehabilitate that fund calls for “significantly decreasing benefits for employees and significantly increasing hourly contributions by employers,” Rodio said.

“I can’t project the future of that fund. If that deficit continues to grow, everyone’s benefits are affected,” Rodio said.

Rodio asserted that Tropicana was absolved of any underfunded pension liabilities connected to the National Retirement Fund when the casino was purchased out of bankruptcy in March 2010 by billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

Tropicana continued to pay into the existing pension system while contract negotiations continued with Local 54, Rodio said.

McDevitt said that Tropicana wants to avoid its pension obligations by paying employees only a fraction of their retirement benefits and shifting all of the risks to the workers.

“They seem to think it’s OK to disturb the retirement pension of the workers,” McDevitt said.

Tropicana is among four casinos that still have not reached a new contract agreement with Local 54 since the old pact expired in September. The others are Resorts Casino Hotel, the Golden Nugget Atlantic City and ACH, formerly known as the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort. Local 54 represents about 14,000 bartenders, cocktail servers, cooks, housekeepers and other service workers at Atlantic City’s 11 casino hotels.

Rodio said Tropicana’s proposed terms are virtually identical to the contracts that Local 54 negotiated earlier with the two Trump casinos, except for the new pension payments.