Question: If local 54 has had contracts for 30 years and when projects are built the company uses union contractors i.e. union plumbers, union electricians and union carpenters why is it that the company doesn’t want the Dealers, Slot Techs, Simulcast & Keno to have a contract. It is not fair. I am not just talking about Harrah’s Entertainment, Tropicana and Trump Plaza are resisting it too. Are the Dealers, Slot Techs, Simulcast and Keno not as deserving as members of Local 54 and the other union employees in the house?

Answer: We respect our employees’ right to seek union representation or to remain union free. Their job classification has nothing to do with this guiding principle. Similarly, management’s responsibility to negotiate a contract that is both economically and competitively reasonable is the same for all classes of union represented employees.

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Question: On the Straight Talk Web site you stated that dealers have not been demoted, yet in the next section about dealers hours have been cut you stated that some dealers went from full time to part time. Is that a demotion?

Answer: In the recent layoff, we attempted to preserve as many jobs as we could. To accomplish this we had to place the least senior part time employees on layoff, which then permitted us to fill those positions with the least senior full time employees, which enabled those employees to remain employed. A demotion generally means to go from one position of greater responsibility to a subordinate position with less responsibility and pay. Moving from full time to part time does not represent this kind of employee movement. The dealer remains a dealer. It simply means there are not enough hours to provide a full time schedule.

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Question: I attended the May 30 bargaining meeting and stayed a short period of time. The main thing I remember is the lawyer saying they have to get back to discussing 80/20 for the dealers. Why wasn’t this mentioned in the update? I’m sure the dealers want to know about this, as it will lead to the dealers staying on the game longer and fewer dealers will be needed per shift.

Answer: We needed to get back to the 80/20 issue simply because it was part of the employer’s overall proposal of permanent days off and daily tokes, and was the only item that remained open of the three issues. We understand the concerns of the dealers, and will continue to bargain over this issue, in the hopes of reaching a resolution that will benefit the concerns of all the parties involved.

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Question: According to what I’ve read on message boards, Bally’s has been ordered to bargain by the NLRB and Bally’s has been taken to court by the Federal government to enforce their order to bargain because Bally’s is in violation of Federal law. If that’s true, would a potential strike be characterized as an ‘Economic’ strike or an ‘Unfair Labor Practices Strike’? Seems like the UAW has a good case for characterizing it as an ‘Unfair Labor Practices’ Strike. In that case, the workers will get their jobs back, and it that case it is my intuition that the public will by sympathetic and the dealers will actually go out on strike.

Answer: The NLRB did not take Bally’s to Court, rather Bally’s took the NLRB to Court. We believe that the conduct of the Board and certain employees of the UAW was improper, and we exercised our lawful right to appeal the decision of the Board. The matter is currently pending in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. This is no different than when the UAW appeals decisions that the Board has rendered in the numerous unfair labor practices the union has filed and which were dismissed by the Board. There are presently no unfair labor practices pending at Caesars Atlantic City, and those pending at Bally’s Atlantic City are related to the pending litigation.

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Question: I am confused about what constitutes a purely ‘economic strike’ vs. such a strike compounded by charges of unfair labor practices. Has the UAW stated that Harrah’s is engaging in unfair labor practices? If so, why is the UAW incorrect?

Answer: First, the union has stated publicly that it is not calling a strike at this time. There is, of course, good reason for the union not to call a strike, given the serious economic impact it could have on Atlantic City gaming employees during the busy summer season.

While the law does recognize a distinction between economic and unfair labor practice strikes with respect to an employer’s hiring of replacement workers, there is no reason to be concerned about this distinction in our case. Both Caesars Atlantic City and Bally’s Atlantic City have stated that they have no plans to hire permanent replacement employees in the event of a strike by the UAW. Instead, both casinos would hire only temporary replacements to fully staff the table games operations in the event of a strike and dealers honored the picket line. This means that our business will not be interrupted and that striking employees could return to their jobs when and if the union made an unconditional offer to return to work.