Atlantic City casino workers union reaches tentative settlement with four casinos to avert Friday strike

ATLANTIC CITY — The Atlantic City casino workers union, Unite Here’s Local 54, reached tentative agreements with four casinos Thursday evening — Borgata Hotel & Casino, Harrah’s, Caesars and Tropicana — averting a strike at the start of the holiday weekend.

Negotiations were to continue with Hard Rock Casino, which had a Sunday strike deadline.

At Caesars around 11:30 p.m., a waitress wearing a Unite Here T shirt said the workers were “elated and emotional,” after the agreement, which she said gives them raises.

“BREAKING: CONTRACT VICTORY !!!,” the union tweeted at 11:30 p.m., after negotiations finished inside the Palladium Ballroom on the second floor of Caesars, which along with Harrah’s and Tropicana are owned by Caesars Entertainment.

Rocco Mahoney, a spokesperson for the union, which represents 6,000 bartenders, housekeepers, bartenders, cocktail servers, cooks, bellhops, door attendants, and other service jobs in Atlantic City’s casinos, said the agreements would still need to be ratified by the membership. No date was set.

The union declined to give any further details. The union had been seeking significant raises with all of the casinos. Borgata settled first, earlier Thursday evening.

Contracts for Local 54 workers expired May 31, and the 6,000 casino workers voted on a July 1 strike deadline at the three properties owned by Caesars and Borgata. Hard Rock Casino was under a July 3 strike deadline.

During the afternoon, as gamblers poured into Tropicana ahead of the holiday weekend, casino workers signed up for strike pay on the Boardwalk. Negotiations had lasted until 2 a.m. Thursday with the Caesars properties.

“I don’t think we’re asking for anything outrageous,” said Janey Negron, a 23-year bartender at Tropicana who is a member of the Local 54 bargaining committee. “We’re asking for enough to live on.”

Inside the casino, it was hard to find anyone who was aware of the pending strike. One couple from Pennsylvania were much more preoccupied with the long line to redeem a bus voucher at Tropicana, and said the casino was understaffed. They said they would probably stay in Pennsylvania to gamble in the future.

Of Atlantic City’s four other casinos, two, Bally’s and Ocean, agreed to accept the terms of the other casinos and were not under a threat of a strike. The union had not begun negotiations with Golden Nugget or Resorts, two smaller properties that are also not under a threat of a strike.

The union was seeking substantial wage increases “at a time of rising industry profits and an ongoing labor shortage.”

The union projects that Caesars Entertainments’ three casinos could collectively lose $1 million per day and that MGM Resorts-owned Borgata could lose $1.6 million per day in the event of a strike.

The union surveyed 1,934 Atlantic City casino workers in March and April and found that 61% of respondents reported that they “struggled to pay their rent or mortgage on time at least once in the past year.”

When asked, “In the past year, have you ever lacked the money to cover any of the following expenses?” 32% reported they lacked money for food, 37% for utilities, and 27% for transportation.

The union contends that despite increases to the minimum wage, the pay of many casino workers “has not kept up with the rising cost of living.”

“According to the MIT Living Wage calculator, the current living wage in Atlantic County for one adult with no children is $18.83 per hour,” the union said in the report.

As of March, the average wage at the three Atlantic City casinos owned by Caesars Entertainment was about $15.81 per hour for non-tipped workers and $8.80 for tipped workers, the union said. The lowest wage for non-tipped workers was $13 per hour, the current state minimum wage for most New Jersey workers.

Negotiations were being held with all five casinos in the week leading up to the strike deadline, which coincided with the onset of the busy July Fourth weekend, a crucial revenue driver for the industry.