If it wasn’t already apparent that the unions suddenly flocking to the gaming industry are more interested in power for themselves than benefits for their members, last month’s announcement of the Gaming Workers Council should put that to rest.

The four separate unions that come together under this umbrella organization have had little or no success organizing and achieving contracts for their members.

The United Auto Workers (UAW), the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Gaming Division, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO got together under this banner because they have not achieved success. While the UAW and the TWU have signed up several casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Connecticut, there has not been one contract signed with any of the casinos. They have been charging their members dues and not delivering anything.

They claim the casinos are not negotiating in good faith, but the truth is that they don’t want to sign a contract with the few casinos with which they are negotiating. Why? Because they have little leverage with just a couple of casinos. The big hammer comes when they have almost all the casinos signed up and they can threaten a massive strike. If they sign one contract, it will become the model for all other contracts, so they don’t want to sign a contract until they have a majority of the casinos organized.

We’ve seen what happened when one casino went on strike in Atlantic City and Las Vegas.

In Atlantic City, Bally’s casino workers went on strike in 1982. Within days, the strike had collapsed after the workers decided they couldn’t go without pay.

In Las Vegas, the strike at the New Frontier went on for years in the early 1990s. The strike forced the casino owner to sell the property, but it did nothing for the employees, most of whom had found other jobs by then.

Clearly the Gaming Workers Council is a thinly disguised effort to pool their limited successes to force casinos to sign contracts.

So good, you say! The casino owners need someone to force their hands.

OK, then why did this organization fail to invite some of the most successful gaming unions in the country to join their little clique? You would think if you wanted to really force the casinos’ hands, you’d include the largest union active in the gaming industry today, UNITE HERE: Local 54 in Atlantic City and the Culinary in Las Vegas. UNITE HERE has a long history of working with—and against—the casino owners, so it would seem to make sense to invite them aboard. Then you’d really have a powerful organization that would make the casinos sit up and take notice.

But the dirty little secret of the Gaming Workers Council is that it is put together specifically to bust UNITE HERE and replace it with more strident and less experienced unions. The SEIU, you see, wants to represent the same workers that are loyal to UNITE HERE, and a recent intra-union struggle between the UNITE and HERE factions of that union gave SEIU and the others a window of opportunity.

Ordinarily, I’d dismiss this new group as simply a poorly designed effort to fool smart people, but in this economy, we can’t take anything for granted. Even if they fool just a few people, they can be a real threat to the jobs of all casino workers, not just the ones who work on the casino floor.

Times are indeed difficult and potential union members need to understand this is exactly the wrong time to consider signing with a union. First, no union can guarantee your job. When business declines, layoffs occur. And if business declines because a union adds expenses and pressure to an already distressed business, even more jobs will be lost.

Casinos have nothing to spare right now. They are desperately trying to retain good employees, but they won’t hesitate to cut loose employees who make it more difficult for them to operate.

And unions are desperate themselves. The UAW is about to implode along with the U.S. auto industry. (Can you make the connection between the two?) Unions overall have seen a long decline in membership because they have failed to serve their members.

So don’t be fooled by this new council. It’s just another way to separate you from your wages and decrease the power you have over your own job and your future.

By Roger Gros

Roger Gros is publisher of Casino Connection and editor and publisher of Global Gaming Business magazine, the industry’s leading gaming trade publication. Prior to joining Global Gaming Business, Gros was president of Inlet Communications, an independent consulting firm. He was vice president of Casino Journal Publishing Group from 1984-2000, and held virtually every editorial title during his tenure. Gros was editor of Casino Journal, the National Gaming Summary and the Atlantic City Insider, and was the founding editor of Casino Player magazine. He was a co-founder of the American Gaming Summit and the Southern Gaming Summit conferences and trade shows. He is the author of the best-selling book, How to Win at Casino Gambling (Carlton Books, 1995), now in its third edition. Gros was named “Businessman of the Year” for 1998 by the Greater Atlantic City Chamber of Commerce.

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