The waiters, bartenders, room cleaners and cooks who struck seven Atlantic City casinos for a month will all but certainly approve a settlement tonight that will give them much of what they wanted, but not quite everything, strikers said yesterday.þþÿThere's no way it's not going to be ratified, because we got more than we even asked for,ÿ said Joy Korngut, a bartender at the Atlantic City Hilton casino. þþThe union, Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International, did not get the three-year contract it sought, but in agreeing to the five-year deal the casinos wanted, the union bargaining committee won limits on the future subcontracting of casino and resort attractions to nonunion businesses as well as improvements in wages and health care benefits.þþÿI think we are all very excited to get back to work, because it's been a long month,ÿ said Heidi Moffitt, a beverage server at the Hilton. ÿIt seems like they gave us a lot of the things we were fighting for.ÿþþThe union's nearly 10,000 Atlantic City workers struck 7 of the city's 12 casinos on Oct. 1 in an effort to make sure that new, nongambling attractions opened by the casinos would be unionized. The attractions, like restaurants, spas and shops, have ordinarily been subcontracted to national chains. þþUnder the proposed settlement, Tropicana Casino and Resort and Resorts Atlantic City will be allowed to add one each of the nonunion subcontractors during the life of the contract, while existing arrangements with outside companies at all of the casinos remain unaffected. The strike was against Bally's Atlantic City, Caesars Atlantic City, Resorts Atlantic City, Harrah's Atlantic City, the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort, the Showboat and Tropicana Casino and Resort. The city's three Trump properties avoided the strike by settling early. Workers at the Sands remained on the job after that casino agreed to sign the same contract the others would eventually sign, and the Borgata signed a separate contract when it opened last year. þþJackie Dimmerman, a waitress at the Seaside Cafe at the Tropicana and a member of the union bargaining committee, attended the session, which began at 11 a.m. Monday and did not end until just before midnight.þþÿThe hardest part was at the very end, when we said to them that we would not take down our picket signs until we knew that the contract was absolutely solid tomorrow,ÿ she said. ÿWe thought they would say no, but they said yes, and now everything is absolutely perfect. Thank God, it's done, it's done, it's done.ÿþþOn wages and benefits, the union won a 28.3 percent increase over five years, a figure that was said by members to include the costs of improved company contributions to health insurance. Also, unions will continue to represent workers should properties change ownership during the life of the contract.þþThe biggest stumbling block in the bargaining appeared to be the union's insistence on a three-year agreement, which would have had its contracts for casinos in Las Vegas, Chicago and several riverboats expire in the same year. The casinos, loath to give the union the power to call a nationwide strike, prevailed.þþAfter several weeks on the picket line, said Debbie Paolella, a waitress at the Showboat, the issue seemed less important than at first.þþÿAt the beginning we were all very strong on the three-year deal,ÿ Ms. Paolella said. ÿBut once we were out there, we were thinking, if they give us everything else we wanted, the five years would be O.K.ÿþþMs. Paolella's husband was a dealer at the Trump Plaza, one of the three Trump properties that settled early, and so he continued to work. Still, she said, it was a rough month.þþÿOf course I lost money - everybody lost money,ÿ she said in response to a question. ÿThank God I have a husband.ÿþþþþ
Source: NY Times
