Laid-off Resorts casino workers wonder: Why me?

Laid-off Resorts casino workers wonder: Why me?
Originally published: December 12, 2010
By The Associated Press EMILY PREVITI (The Press of Atlantic City)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - (AP) — Cocktail server Billie Herbert paused before a slot machine at Resorts Atlantic City and arched her slim, leotard-clad body backward to adjust her open-toe, heeled shoe. The drink tray she carried stayed steady, despite her one-legged stance; her waist was trim, despite her pregnancy.

Nearly three decades have passed since that moment was caught in a photo that, along with others of Herbert, graced the pages of Resorts International Magazine, the casino's former in-house promotional glossy. The baby she carried back then is now a 27-year-old married man, and Herbert is a 55-year-old divorcee with health problems who this week lost the job she held at the casino-hotel since it opened in 1978.

"I was called on Sunday night and told I was no longer needed," Herbert said Thursday. "And I said, Why? Why? Why are you firing me?'"

Herbert and about 300 others lost their jobs Tuesday after Gomes Gaming Group took over Resorts, the city's worst-performing property. Last week, Trump Entertainment Inc. also cut about 300 employees at its three local properties amid reorganization and ownership changes. Both instances are the most recent examples of the local gambling industry's five-year plunge, which has cost more than 10,000 people their jobs at Atlantic City casinos.

At least a dozen other cocktail servers who were interviewed echoed Herbert's sentiments, including 47-year-old Debbie Gonzalez, of Galloway Township.

"Everyone thinks of Resorts as their home. It's their family," she said. "I haven't slept (much) in four days."

The first property to open after New Jersey legalized gambling, Resorts sold for $31.5 million, nearly $110 million below its 2001 sale price.

Industry experts regard the deal, Gomes Gaming and its president, Dennis Gomes, as the last chance for the casino and about 2,000 employees. Chuck Urban, a waiter in Resorts' second-floor Italian restaurant Capriccio, is one of those employees.

"I guess the grande dame, the first casino in A.C., was withering away for a while, and I would love for Mr. Gomes to bring it back," said Urban, a 47-year-old Absecon resident and recently elected city councilman. "Gomes has a great track record in the city. We're looking forward to his enthusiasm and his energy."

Renowned for his ability to turn around struggling casinos, Gomes finalized the purchase of Resorts Monday, buying the casino-hotel complex and the adjacent, 22-acre undeveloped tract.

Gomes, who required all employees to reapply for their jobs, has said he intended to hire at lower wages and include between 80 percent and 90 percent of existing employees to save money and improve operations.

The hiring process started a few weeks earlier, with existing staff given preference over other applicants, all other things being equal, Gomes said.

The capital-only purchase and the decision to get rid of the existing operator meant all personnel files were wiped clean when Gomes and his team started Tuesday. But it also gave Gomes Gaming the ability to hire and pay without the constraints of a previously determined contract.

"It's a horrible thing for the individual and their family," Gomes said. "We're a new company hiring people. It's unfortunate that certain individuals lost their jobs, and we feel for them. That doesn't mean I can go hire these people who were terminated by another company. Business doesn't work that way. I've got a responsibility to my partners and other employees here to keep the place running in a profitable way."

That bottom-line mindset is universal in the casino world. But the capital-only-purchase scenario was "unique," according to Unite-Here Local 54 President Bob McDevitt. Urban and others at Resorts face pay cuts as steep as 60 percent; those no longer with the company can pay $75 or more each month for extended benefits until March, according McDevitt.

"All of these wages are a starting point," McDevitt said, adding he intends to start formal negotiations — forbidden until Gomes took over Tuesday — before Christmas.

Everyone must undergo a 90-day probationary period, which Urban and other hires say means the worry is not completely gone, even for them.

"We've had people on the edge for a year now. That worry got more and more acute as the property was running on fumes," McDevitt said. "The entire work force, not just those I represent, has worried."

Workers became concerned about their future when Resorts' lenders started circling and talking foreclosure in February 2009, five months after Colony Capital LLC stopped paying its $360 million mortgage.

"It's now shifting from everyone's stressed and on edge about the future to grief counseling and having to reassure other people from feeling guilty," McDevitt said. "It has strained my staff beyond what I can describe."

At least 90 percent of restaurant workers, 80 percent of bar and security staff, 70 percent of housekeeping, 60 percent of valet and concierge services and about 40 percent of cocktail servers stayed on at Resorts, McDevitt said.

Gomes could not immediately confirm those numbers, nor provide estimated overall savings, proportion of external hires or other related statistics.

Herbert thinks the reason she didn't make the cut along with other longtime cocktail servers has something to do with the new uniform. Backless and fringed, the ensemble's hot pants, fishnets and 1.5-inch heels meant at least doubling the exposure for waitresses accustomed to pairing a sleeveless vest with their choice between heels and black sneakers, pants and flared, mid-thigh-length skirt.

Gomes, who said he didn't have direct involvement in the hiring process, designed the sexier, flapper-inspired get-up in keeping with the Roaring '20s theme he intends to establish at the property and the revival he hopes to accomplish.

Herbert has a job ad featuring a model wearing the design tacked to her living room wall: "Must look good in uniform," it reads.

"It's cutesy, it's sexy, and sex sells," she says. "And that's why I'm not sold. I'm out."

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Information from: The Press of Atlantic City, http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com

http://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/laid-off-resorts-casino-workers-wonder-why-me-1.2536395