Delegations from the Transportation Workers Union, Service Employees International Union, Laborers Union, Yale workers unions, and others participated in the event. Many arrived on buses from Boston, New York, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, and northern New Jersey.
The strikers are members of UNITE HERE Local 54. They are employed as food and beverage servers, cooks, cleaners, and housekeepers by Harrah’s Showboat, Resorts Atlantic City, Bally’s, Claridge, Caesars, Tropicana, and the Hilton casinos and hotels. They walked out October 1 and have been picketing around the clock since then.
The main issues in the strike are the length of the contract, which expired last September, and the subcontracting out of work. Representatives of the union and the casino owners met the day before the rally—the first time since the strike began—with no results. Local 54 president Robert McDevitt told the press that the casino bosses said, “We don’t want to talk about anything except a five-year deal.” The union is pressing for a three-year contract to set a similar expiration date as contracts of other hotel and casino workers, which run out in 2007. Workers said this would strengthen their hand against further employer attacks by making collective action possible on a nationwide scale.
September was a record-breaking month for the casino bosses here. All the casinos posted revenue gains, raking in nearly $409 million, or almost 11 percent more than the same period last year. The strike is having an effect on services, shutting down some restaurants and forcing others to use paper plates and plastic utensils. In order to prevent a strike, the casino owners at Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts agreed to a three-year contract in September. Sands Casino Hotel announced they would also sign a three-year deal. Borgata Casino & Spa already signed a similar deal last year.
At the rally, union leaders reported that the companies have been sending letters to union members begging them to quit the union and return to work. The union reports about 300 workers have crossed the picket line. The casino owners claim the number is closer to 1,000.
“Even though I would like to go back to work, I won’t do it. I support the union,” said Theresa McNair, a cleaner at the Hilton casino floor. “All of us are sticking together. Although some have crossed the line, the majority are still out.”
The strikers have begun to face attacks by the bosses’ “security” outfit. A unionist was surrounded by guards who were filming him while he was picketing, and when fellow picket Alberto Camilo Peņa tried to reach a strike captain, the guards knocked him down, and handcuffed and detained him. Peņa filed assault charges against the goons. The casino bosses filed a counter complaint alleging criminal mischief. Peņa and one of his co-workers, Santos DeJesus, were fired for “strike-related misconduct.”
Three union officials, among them Local 54 president McDevitt, were arrested by New Jersey police after the rally and charged with contempt of court. A court order had restricted the unionists to the use of only the sidewalks for the march, and this was enforced by police officers on foot and in patrol cars. Police chief Arthur Snellbaker claimed that union leaders were responsible for keeping the marchers strictly on the sidewalk, but had led some onto the streets. About a week earlier, on October 8, cops arrested about 80 strikers who blocked the main thoroughfare into Atlantic City at the beginning of the busy Columbus Day weekend to press their demands.
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