About 2000 Atlantic City casino workers protest "poverty wages" in front of ... - Press of Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY — Poverty wages and loss of benefits were the battle cry as about 2,000 casino workers protested around Resorts Casino Hotel on Friday evening, a precursor to a planned 12-hour picket today.
Negotiations have not been going well as contracts with nine of the city's casinos are set to expire Sept. 15. Borgata Casino Hotel & Spa's contract is in effect until next year. But with the change of ownership at Resorts in December, there is not a deadline for Resorts' contract.
Local 54 of UNITE-HERE, which represents about 14,000 casino workers, charges that Resorts is setting a bad example that other casinos are following. Longtime employees, they say, have had their wages cut to "poverty" levels.
"You have 25-year workers going from $14 an hour to $9," union President Bob McDevitt said. "They're going on food stamps."
But the company has not cut anyone's wages, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Gomes said. Instead, the company hired employees who lost their jobs when the casino was sold, he said.
Either way, those walking past the Boardwalk protest may have gotten the wrong idea about the sentiments of those gathered.
"We love Resorts," was the loud chant.
The words weren't coming from the union workers, however, but from two large speakers on a second-floor balcony of the casino.
"It was the employees' idea," Gomes said of the counter-chant when reached by phone. "There are just so many employees here — even those with Local 54 — who love Resorts. It was sort of a group decision."
Passing the group of union workers gathered, it was easier to hear what they were saying: "Shame on Resorts."
A group also marched down the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the casino, turning onto Pacific Avenue and down North Carolina — but when they reached the arrival area, they were turned around by union representatives who said they were blocked from protesting there.
"No contract, no peace," they chanted. Then: "What do we want? Contracts. When do we want them? Now."
"I'm getting my 1996 pay," said Shirish Patel, 63, who has worked at the casino for 19 years. "My savings are eroding. You can't keep up in 2011 on 1996 pay."
He also lost his benefits, pension and severance plan, he said. Patel said his son and family have moved into the Egg Harbor Township home he shares with his wife to help with the mortgage.
"We don't want poverty to return to Atlantic City," said Maddie Downey, a bartender at Showboat for seven years, and a union member for 15.
The single mom said she can't survive with a pay cut and no benefits while raising her teenage son in Ventnor.
But Gomes said the "poverty wages" McDevitt and the union have criticized are the same rates the union negotiated for its three-year employees.
"We could have started them as new employees, but we are paying them the same amount three-year employees make," Gomes said. "So if these are poverty wages, that's what they negotiated throughout the city for their three- and three-and-a-half-year workers."
McDevitt disagreed with Gomes' logic.
"To compare a new hire to a worker who has been working in the same building at the same job for 25 years is disingenuous at best," McDevitt said.
The workers protested for about two hours, wrapping up at 7 p.m. They plan to return today with a 12-hour protest beginning at 8 a.m. McDevitt said they will be in smaller groups than today's rally, working in two-hour shifts.
"I have a reputation for caring about and loving all my employees," Gomes said. "I feel positive that this will come to a positive conclusion."
Contact Lynda Cohen:
609-272-7257
03 Sep, 2011--
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