Q and A

What I think about the impending Union in AC casino's?

Yesterday, Tony Rodeo, Joe Nicosia and Jeff Jamieson and Kevin all held a conference with part time dealers to try to convince them not to join the union. They also pointed out the differences between the conditions in Hilton and Ceasars. They did not, however, manage to change my mind. I still intend to vote yes for the Union.

It is quite clear to me that if management is so adamant about warding off the union, the union must be good for dealers. Management tries to portray the union as a business entity that is merely out there for the member dues. This is actually entirely not true. A union is actually comparable to a "non-for-profit" organization. Note that even NPO's have revenue and expenses. Yet, the NPO is not organized for the purpose of making money. Rather its main goal is to provide a service to the community. Casion's are different. Casino's are just like regular businesses. Unions are a recation to abuse by company management. They are NOT businesses.

It is true that unions, just like other big organizational entities have dulled their mission through their thick bureacratic skin. It is doubtful, for example, if I bring my complaint toward the union, whether they will put that forward to management as they are supposed to. Yet, they are still the legitimate official vehicle for resolving employee grievances. History has shown that individual employees do not have the power to demand fair treatment by management. Management is well aware that the demand for jobs is great and they are therefore abusive towards elpoyess if left to their own devices.

Personally I am greatly slighted by my still on-call status after working there for almost a year. They artificially invented the "part-time" position in order to avoid paying benefits but social standards have caught up with that ploy and once they started providing some benefits to part-timers they had to invent the new on-call in order to absolve themselves from any and all benefit payments. This is the chief reason that I will vote pro-union.

Furthermore, I have said many times that I have notihng to lose. Without any benefits and any promotion and with many other casinos out there there is nothing for me to cherish at Hilton to prod me to be nice towards them. And so I am very much pro union even if I have not heard much of the union side.