Casino Dealers Pick a Winning Card: UAW - After 16 years, I’m only making $8 an hour.

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/20/casino-dealers-pick-a-winning-card-uaw/

Casino Dealers Pick a Winning Card: UAW

by James Parks, Mar 20, 2007

The dealers at Caesars casino in Atlantic City, N.J., beat the odds last Saturday and voted by more than a four-to-one margin to become part of the UAW. This marks the first time in the nearly 30-year history of the casino industry in Atlantic City that casino dealers have voted to form a union.

For Sue Tizzano, it was about time. Tizzano, who has been a dealer at Caesars for 16 years, says every time the ownership of the casino changed hands, working conditions got worse. Harrah’s Entertainment, the current owners, is the worst, she says.

After 16 years, I’m only making $8 an hour. I am a single woman. I have a mortgage and bills to pay. We don’t have a prescription plan. I can’t afford to buy medicine and the health insurance—that I have to pay $21 a week for—is so bad, my doctor won’t even take it.

On top of that, Tizzano says the maximum salary for dealers is $8.50 an hour—and after you reach that level, “you can’t get anymore raises.” Not that the casino’s raises are that generous—the most anyone gets is 25 cents an hour after an annual evaluation, but most dealers are getting between 12 cents and 13 cents, she says.

We want to be treated like human beings. They’ve taken our prescription plan. We’re only getting 13-cent raises. They’ve taken everything. What more do they want—my firstborn?

Tired of being treated with a lack of respect, the 850 dealers voted 572­–128 to join the UAW. Says Tizzano:

Everybody was so happy Sunday. We haven’t had happy faces around here in a long time.

The new bargaining unit at Caesars includes full- and part-time table game dealers, keno and simulcast workers. Dealers’ issues include low pay, meager health benefits, no seniority rights and poor treatment on the job.

UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn, who heads the union’s Technical, Office and Professional Department, says:

We’re delighted for workers at Caesars. This huge victory is the first step in a larger effort by dealers across Atlantic City to form their own union. The next step is to work with Caesars management to secure a first contract that benefits casino workers and the gaming industry in New Jersey.

The vote at Caesars is the first in a citywide effort by dealers to form a union. Dealers at Trump Plaza will vote on whether to join a union March 31, and dealers at several other casinos are actively involved in organizing efforts. The UAW has represented dealers, cage cashiers and slot technicians at Detroit’s three casinos since 1999. Joe Ashton, who directs the UAW’s Region 9, says there has been “a tidal wave of support from community leaders, legislators and dealers across Atlantic City, as well as from our members at Detroit houses.”

FULL story at link.

[NMDemDist2]

1. now Steve, you know I'm a big Union supporter but truly!

$8.50 an hour??? don't they make tips?

hell, I make less than minimum wage hourly in the food and beverage industry around here, but with tips it's well over $14 an hour.

:shrug:

[Omaha Steve]

4. Wages are only part of it, 16 years and no seniority etc...

"Dealers’ issues include low pay, meager health benefits, no seniority rights and poor treatment on the job."

[NMDemDist2]

6. ok that makes more sense, thanks! n/t

[TlalocW]

5. Probably not as good as what you would think

I'm hardly an expert as I've only visited Vegas once and didn't gamble but observed, and I didn't see too many tips for the dealers and whatnot. I saw a lot of tips for the pretty waitresses, but that's to be expected. In fact, I walked past a very pretty, very busty waitress in the parking lot of my hotel one morning as she was getting off shift. She greeted me with a very cheery good morning then got into an $80,000 car and drove off. I don't know if this is the norm or not, but it was surprising.

TlalocW

[Alcibiades]

8. It depends on the game

The more popular the game, the better the tips. Tips would typically be better at someplace fairly upscale, like Caesars, than one of the more "budget-conscious" casinos.

I've tipped dealers $20 for one good hand. Most places pool their tips and divvy them up once a month or once a quarter. If you didn't sit down at a table and observe closely, you might not observe what appears to be tipping. Dealers are tipped in chips. You cannot hand a dealer chips in any place I know of, so you place any tips to the dealer at different places on the felt for different games. If you don't know where that spot is, you'd probably think it was a wager.

Some dealers are sour pusses. Hell, if they pool their tips, they have no reason to be nice. The best dealers are friendly, and they do best when the players are winning, so they are full of helpful tips for the players. In most games, there's even a way to place a bet for the dealer, so that what would be a buck tip could be much more for them.

In general, I think a dealer in a place like Caesars probably does fairly well. Wages and tips together make for an income waaaay above average. it's just that, in a place like Vegas, money is everywhere, so they probably really feel subjectively poor.

[wakeme2008]

7. You would be surprised at the amount of tips they make... Not good unless you

are in a high roller room. :shrug:

[LiberalFighter]

2. Very good vote outcome... 80%+

[TlalocW]

3. Good grief

With the millions if not billions casinos make, you think they could afford to be a bit more generous with the people making their money for them.

TlalocW