Atlantic City casino workers on Thursday voted to go on strike on July 1, the start of the city’s busiest weekend of the year.
More than 6,000 servers, housekeepers and other workers who are part of the Unite Here labor union plan to walk off the job on July 1 if there’s no agreement to raise pay above the current average of $11.74 an hour. Caesars, Bally’s, Harrah’s, Tropicana and Trump Taj Mahal are among the properties that would be impacted.
The union says workers have given up more than $40 million in wage freezes and benefit reductions during the past five years as the city attempted to recover from the recession and ensuing drop in demand. The union called the Atlantic City casino business a "$2.5 billion industry that just had its best year
in almost a decade, with an operating profit growth of 40% in 2015."
Workers are taking issue with the private-equity owners of the hotel casinos. The union says the casinos have prioritized payment of executive bonuses over workers’ pay and benefit increases. The union also says resort owners are costing New Jersey taxpayers because many workers are on subsidized health-insurance plans.