UAW plans Atlantic City rally to support contract talks with 4 casinos

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UAW plans Atlantic City rally to support contract talks with 4 casinos

By ERIK ORTIZ, Staff Writer, 609-272-7253

Published: Wednesday, May 21, 2008

2:15 p.m. Update - ATLANTIC CITY — Dealers from at least four casinos will take to the streets next month for a demonstration calling for fair contract negotiations, the United Auto Workers union announced Tuesday.

The rally, scheduled for 12:30 p.m. June 21, is expected to include Ron Gettelfinger, president of the Detroit-based UAW, and John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest union coalition. Thousands of union members throughout New Jersey, as well as Detroit, New York, Connecticut and Washington, D.C., are being asked to march in support.

“The dealers are fed up,” said Kevin Donovan, assistant director for the UAW region that oversees Atlantic City. “They’re not asking for the world. They’re just asking for the piece of the world that they’ve earned.”

Donovan, speaking at a press conference at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel, was applauded by dozens of casino workers from Bally’s Atlantic City, Caesars Atlantic City, Tropicana Casino and Resort, and Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino — where dealers over the past year voted in favor of organizing through the UAW.

Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO, also spoke on behalf of the workers, promising further political and legislative muscle should the casinos fail to negotiate fairly or stall the bargaining process.

Here’s how contract negotiations are playing out between the UAW and the casinos where dealers voted to unionize:

- The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in April certified the results of the Bally’s election last year, when dealers voted 628-255 for representation. But according to the UAW, Bally’s is appealing the decision and the NLRB is pursuing an unfair labor practice complaint against Bally’s because it has refused to bargain.

An NLRB director did not return a telephone call late Tuesday.

Alyce Parker, a spokeswoman for Harrah’s Entertainment, which owns Bally’s, declined to comment.

- Caesar’s and Tropicana are in the bargaining process.

- Trump has asked the NLRB to overturn the results of the March 2007 election to organize dealers there. The complaint is still under review.