Potential problems loom for Atlantic City heading into
the Fourth of July holiday, including a strike and a sharp jump in the gas tax
chief among them.
Atlantic City’s largest casino union is threatening a
walkout on Friday of as many as 6,500 employees at five of eight casinos in the
recovering resort on Friday.
The properties facing walkouts are Caesars, Harrah’s,
Bally’s, Tropicana and the Taj Mahal.
"We do not have an agreement. A strike is likely at
one or more properties," Bob McDevitt, president of UNITE HERE Local 54
said Tuesday afternoon during a teleconference with reporters.
McDevitt said a final decision to go out on strike will
not happen at midnight Thursday, but will be decided some time during the day
on Friday. If there are acceptable proposals in the works, strikes could be
averted, he added.
He said the biggest challenge is getting an equitable
contract for workers at the Taj Mahal because many of their perks – health care
and pension payments among them – were stripped away during the property's
recent bankruptcy.
But he noted the contract for the Taj could set a low
standard for other properties, which could demand the same terms, meaning negotiations
will be intense at that hotel/casino.
"They are much further behind. The jump for them
will be extraordinarily high," said McDevitt of the Taj.
McDevitt said givebacks happened throughout the city in
2011 as casinos fought to stay alive – four properties closed in 2014 – and
with financial recovery, he said there should be sharing between the operators
and the workers.
And while 4,000 UNITE HERE workers at Borgata, Golden
Nugget and Resorts Casino are not affected, a labor dispute could also keep
patrons away from those properties – and the rest of Atlantic City.
Add to that a New Jersey gasoline hike, maybe as early as
Friday, which could jump taxes by 23 cents a gallon.
The expected hike would lift the state to the
seventh-highest gas tax rates in the country.
Meanwhile, Revel, shuttered for nearly two years, missed
its promised June 15 reopening as a hotel. And chances of it getting back
online by the holiday weekend seem uncertain, if not unlikely
The hotel remains closed, with owner Glenn Straub
throwing a tantrum over gaming regulators who want him licensed as a casino
operator even though he plans to subcontract Revel’s casino operation.
Straub bought the financially distressed property more
than a year ago – it went into bankruptcy twice before closing without ever
turning a profit – for $82 million. Construction costs for the second tallest
building in New Jersey were $2.2 billion.
The squabble between Straub and casino regulators is
further clouding Revel’s reopening as a hotel, with Straub saying he’s not
moving forward as long as he is required to obtain a license for the property.
On the plus side – yes, there is a small silver lining
heading into what should be a big weekend – Delaware River Port Authority
unions, the folks who operate the Ben Franklin and Walt Whitman bridges,
chokepoints on the way to Atlantic City, aren’t planning labor actions for the
holiday weekend.
That was the threatened murmur after their labor pacts
were recently vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie over the terms of the health care
agreement.
While bad blood remains – one labor leader says he was
recently escorted out of a state office building by police at the direction of
a Christie appointee – a new agreement on health care is before the governor.
That means no labor action because “we don’t want
toll-payers on a holiday weekend,” said Frank Blanchard of Operating Engineers
Local 542.
During his conference call, McDevitt avoided saying how
likely he believes a strike may be, but he did say, "Nobody wants a
strike."
Requests for comment from spokes persons for the five
targeted casinos were not immediately returned.
Source: Philly
Voice
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