Perhaps the most outrageous example of these wholesale violations of workers’ rights is Bally’s Casino, a Harrah’s property. In Atlantic City, N.J., where several thousand dealers and other gaming workers voted to join the UAW, not a single dealer has a collective bargaining agreement today. If there ever was a case for the urgent need of the Employee Free Choice Act, the gaming industry’s response to dealer organizing provides it. Casino owners have fired worker-activists, intimidated workers during elections and refused to bargain despite overwhelming union victory margins in certified National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections. Unfortunately, employer opposition stands in the way of achieving real justice.
In New Jersey, Connecticut, Nevada and Indiana, these workers have waged heroic fights to win justice and a real say in their working conditions. In the past two years, dealers, slot technicians and other gaming workers who traditionally have not been organized have formed unions, won elections and in some instances are bargaining contracts. While that reputation is deserved for certain portions of the workforce, thousands of gaming workers do not enjoy the security of union contracts. The gaming industry long has been known for providing good union jobs with stable employment, solid wages and benefits.
