DETROIT — “Housekeeping is on the streets! Dirty beds, dirty sheets!” was the chant by strikers outside Hollywood Casino’s hotel in Detroit’s Greektown Nov. 15 when Militant correspondents from Cincinnati joined in. Some 3,700 workers, members of five unions, struck MGM Grand Casino, MotorCity Casino and Hollywood Casino at Greektown Oct. 17.
The unions’ Detroit Casino Council is made up of UNITE HERE Local 24, Teamsters Local 1038, United Auto Workers Local 7777, Operating Engineers Local 324 and the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters.
After a tentative contract was reached Nov. 17, the unions kept picket lines up until members voted. The Casino Council announced the agreement includes an immediate 18% average pay raise, no increase in health care costs, workload reductions for housekeeping and some other jobs, retirement increases, and requires boss notification of new technology, with retraining, severance pay and continuing health care for those laid off as a result.
Workers at the MotorCity and Hollywood casinos voted up the contract Nov. 19, but strikers at MGM Grand voted it down and are still on the picket line.
While the Militant worker-correspondents were on the picket line Nov. 15 they saw tents set up outside the MGM Grand and a bustling picket line. Housekeeper Esperanza Garcia explained she is fighting for a wage increase, a bearable workload and no increase in her insurance premium. She said she learned English on the job.
“This is my job, and has also been my school. I appreciate it, but I need enough to live,” she said. Hotel housekeepers are expected to clean 12 rooms in eight hours. “You need a half hour to clean a room right. A suite can take two hours. It’s not easy to go on strike. This is my first time, but I’m not scared.”
When the previous contract expired in 2020, the unions agreed to an extension with only a 3% pay increase. Inflation has run many times that and the casinos have realized record profits since the end of the pandemic, as bookings soared after it ended while the workforce remained down by 1,500.
“I’m proud of my job but we need more people. We do the work of two. We’re breaking down our bodies,” Mary Luna, a cashier in the MGM Grand coffee shop, said.
She said some of her co-workers don’t see the importance of picketing. “They say MGM doesn’t care. I say you’re right, they don’t care, but do you care enough to be out here — for yourself?”
Outside the MotorCity Casino, pickets walked back and forth at the entrance to the parking garage and told everyone coming in why they’re on strike. Many pointed to the divisive effects of the hated tiered pay scheme.
Ned Measel is a member of UNITE HERE Local 24.