Casino strike continues with rallies,
arrests, and intimidation
Compiled by Liz Allen
Oct. 19 (AGR) — In Atlantic City, NJ, three union officials
were arrested Oct. 16 at the end of a daylong rally held to protest
stalled contract talks with seven city casinos and to encourage striking
casino workers to stay the course. About 10,000 service workers —
cocktail servers and hostesses, pastry cooks and cart attendants —
walked off the job Oct. 1 at Harrah’s Atlantic City, Showboat Casino-Hotel,
Resorts Atlantic City, Bally’s Atlantic City, Caesars Atlantic
City, the Atlantic City Hilton and Tropicana Casino and Resort. The
local and members of Unite Here have been walking the picket line around-the-clock
in protest of a contract offer that they say will not put them on par
with casino employees in Las Vegas.
Robert McDevitt, president of Local 54 of the hotel and restaurant employees
union; Kevin Kline, a Las Vegas member of the local’s national
affiliate, Unite Here; and Scott Cooper, of Marshall, NC also of Unite
Here, were taken into custody at New Jersey and Pacific Avenues, Atlantic
City Police Chief Arthur Snellbaker said.
Those were the only arrests during the rally, the third since talks
first broke off on Oct. 1. On Oct. 14, talks went on for approximately
45 minutes before ending in a stalemate.
On Oct. 16, more than 10,000 people wearing union colors gathered at
Pacific Avenue, outside the Showboat Casino, to open the event.
The casinos say about 1,000 workers have crossed the picket line and
returned to work. Union officials say 300 have returned. Speakers said
Oct. 16 that the casinos were sending mailers to employees, imploring
them to resign from the union and return to work.
Union workers must serve on the picket line for 20 hours a week to get
$200 in strike pay.
After authorities said they led a line that was nearly one mile long
into Pacific Avenue, which police closed for about two hours as strikers
walked the street, McDevitt, Kline and Cooper were charged with criminal
contempt of court for violating a judge’s order forbidding the
strikers from stepping onto the streets. The three were released late
that night.
A striking worker who suffered a broken kneecap in a picket line confrontation
with security guards was fired for “strike-related misconduct”
along with a fellow striker, officials said Oct. 14.
Bally’s Atlantic City busman Alberto Camilo Pena, 43, and Bally’s
utility porter Santos DeJesus, 56, said their firings stemmed from an
incident in front of the casino in which Pena was thrown to the ground
and handcuffed by security guards working for Bally’s.
One union chief called the guards “thugs.”
“It was a hired agency brought in from out of town to intimidate,
brutalize and harass members of the union who’ve been picketing
peacefully for two weeks,” said McDevitt.
The incident was the first report of violence in the longest strike
ever to hit Atlantic City casinos.
Sharon Pearce, a spokeswoman for Caesars Entertainment, which owns the
casino, said, “We are confident that once all of the facts are
presented, the action that was taken will be viewed as a necessary measure
needed to contain the situation.”
The strikers said they were outside Bally’s Atlantic City on Oct.
10 when guards with video cameras surrounded DeJesus for no reason,
filming him as he picketed.
Pena began running from the strike line to summon a Local 54 strike
captain when he was knocked to the pavement, handcuffed and taken inside
the casino, where he was held for about 20 minutes, the Spanish-speaking
worker said through an interpreter Oct. 14.
Police say Pena filed a complaint alleging assault by the unidentified
guards and that the guards also filed one alleging assault and criminal
mischief by Pena and another man.
Pena and DeJesus said they never struck anyone or did anything improper
to provoke them.
“I believe I did nothing wrong,” said DeJesus, a grandfather
of four. “I was doing what I was supposed to do.”
No one has been charged in the incident, Police Lt. Michael Tullio said
Oct. 14.
Pena, a father of three and 14-year employee who McDevitt said had a
spotless record, was notified of his termination in a notice dated Oct.
12. An identical one was sent to DeJesus.
In Las Vegas, Nevada 800 union members descended Oct. 14 on the corporate
headquarters of Harrah’s Entertainment, delivering a loud message
of support for their co-workers in Atlantic City.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 members made themselves heard with
bullhorns, placards and lots of shouting. Nearly 100 were cited by Las
Vegas police for trespassing after company officials warned them twice
to leave the property.
D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Local 226, said the confrontation
could have been avoided if Harrah’s had simply agreed to sign a
pledge to not hire replacement workers in Atlantic City.
Union officials said they chose to picket the headquarters instead of
a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino because it’s a symbol of the company’s
power as the largest gambling company in the world.
Harrah’s scope and reach will increase if it wins state and federal
approval to merge with Caesars Entertainment.
Joan Orr, 49, a cocktail waitress at Caesars Atlantic City who came
for the protest, said Harrah’s has to understand that union members
stick together.
“When you mess with Atlantic City, you mess with Las Vegas,”
she said.
Orr was one of 85 people arrested last week in Atlantic City during
a sit-in on Oct. 8.
Local 54 is demanding continued free health care, salary wages and an
end to subcontracting nonunion members. Also, the union is demanding
a three-year contract, and Harrah’s wants it to be for five years.
“They want a contract that lines up expiration across the country,
and I’m not prepared to do that,” Harrah’s Entertainment
Chief Executive Gary Loveman told Reuters. “It gives the union
the capacity to strike me all across the country at the same time. It
massively increases their power in relationship to the industry. It
is something I and my successors would live with forever...”
In Atlantic City the Sands casino will sign on to whatever the seven
casinos whose workers are striking agree to. Employees of the Trump
Plaza, Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Marina and the Borgata have current contracts.
Sources: AP, Philadelphia Inquirer, 1010
Wins
