“This is life and death”: Casino workers fight for safety as states reopen
by C.M. Lewis
Source: UNITE HERE
With a wave of states lifting stay-at-home orders, shuttered sectors of the economy are gradually reopening for business—and workers are returning to jobs. For cities like Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Biloxi, that means starting up the battered heart of the local economy: casinos and gaming.
In places like Las Vegas, the local economy revolves around gaming. Shutting down the Strip is tantamount to shutting down the city. Under normal circumstances, that offers enormous leverage for workers: something seen clearly in UNITE HERE Culinary 226’s success in dramatically raising wages and living standards in the Vegas hospitality sector. Right now, though, that presents a challenge: no sector of the economy has been hit as hard as the hospitality industry. Nearly 50% of all hospitality workers nationwide—about 7.7 million workers—have been laid off.
What that means in real terms is grim. Gladis Blanco, a guest room attendant and a member of Culinary 226, was laid off with only two weeks of additional pay when the pandemic closed the Bellagio. “I have some money saved I’ve been using to support my family,” according to Gladis, “[but] I don’t know what will happen at the end of the month with my savings.” Like many Nevadans, especially those in Las Vegas, she has yet to receive unemployment benefits.
The economic turmoil hitting workers has huge implications for state revenue, too. New Jersey’s eleven casinos, all located in Atlantic City, generated $65.6 million dollars in gaming tax revenue in January, February, and March of 2020 alone before the COVID-19 pandemic closed gaming. In Nevada, annual hospitality and gaming taxes alone total $1.5 billion, or roughly one twentieth of the state budget. With state and local governments facing stark budget shortfalls and the uncertainty of federal relief, each month of shuttered industry deepens the crisis.
The pressure to reopen is huge. But gaming workers and their union, UNITE HERE, are sending a clear message: businesses must prioritize the safety of their workers and their customers in any plan to reopen.
On May 5th, the union—which represents primarily hospitality workers—released public safety guidelines intended to guide safe reopening in the gaming industry. According to Bob McDevitt, President of UNITE HERE Local 54 in Atlantic City, their union is taking the lead on holding casino operators accountable to workers and communities. Although he welcomes partnerships with other unions—in Atlantic City, the United Auto Workers represent casino dealers—right now, “We’re the ones out there that are moving this forward.”
Among UNITE HERE’s demands: full distribution of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers, surgical masks for guests, thermal screening and as-needed testing for all guests, continued social distancing, health and sanitation training for all employees, protective barriers at all cages and cashier stations on the casino floor, and a host of other health and safety measures—as well as a requirement that management will compel subcontractors to abide by the same safety measures.
The concerns expressed by McDevitt, workers, and other union leaders are driven in part by the clear risk to communities. According to UNITE HERE President D. Taylor, the danger is clear: “If [a] coronavirus hotspot hits one casino in a town, [and] it’s not reported [because] ‘Oh, well, it’s that one casino’—it’s that whole town[.]” If casino operators fail to observe property safety measures, it poses a risk for entire communities—not just the workers on the shop floor. “This is not about us, this is about the industry that we love and want to have prosper and make sure that our workers are safe.”
In ensuring that reopening occurs with worker-first and community protections in place, UNITE HERE sees themselves as advocating for all workers—not just their members. According to D. Taylor, “We're not just talking about our members; in a casino environment coronavirus doesn't stop at just one classification.”
Although some have gestured toward labor-management cooperation as society weathers an unprecedented pandemic, cooperation isn’t a foregone conclusion and many employers are proceeding with plans well short of the mark. UNITE HERE is looking for industry-wide action—not just individually proactive employers. So far, they haven’t seen it; according to D. Taylor, “Clearly the industry has not put out comprehensive plans that we have seen [and] has not put out plans good enough that we have seen[.]”
With some employers there’s still a power struggle between labor and management over who makes decisions over the return to work. Marlena Patrick-Cooper, President of UNITE HERE Local 23, says that “The employers . . . want to be the only one making this decision, and in being in charge of the testing and the monitoring.” Even during a pandemic, the dynamic remains familiar: “the bottom line is the employers don’t want to hear from our members.”
UNITE HERE has leverage, though. Gaming operates under a “privileged license,” meaning that state gaming control boards have regulatory power over gaming and whether casinos can operate. Management doesn’t have sole power to reopen—they have to meet the guidelines set by regulatory authorities. That means an opportunity to make sure state gaming control boards prioritize worker input. According to UNITE HERE, state regulatory agencies enforcing safe working and guest conditions is part of the solution.
Whether state gaming control boards rise to the task or not, UNITE HERE’s message is clear: they intend to hold bad actors publicly accountable. According to D. Taylor, “We’re not gonna have workers suffer. This is not going to be like a meatpacking plant where you can’t go inside. We’re not gonna allow that, and we will be very vocal and aggressive about that.”
Because as Culinary 226 Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline puts it, the stakes are too high. “This is life and death. This isn't like asking for something extra for the workers; this is the worker can die, or the customer can die[.]”
C.M. Lewis is an editor of Strikewave and a union activist in Pennsylvania.