FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Workers at Caesars casino voted overwhelmingly in favor of a first contract for dealers by a 90 percent majority.

The agreement was reached nearly four years after workers voted to join the UAW.

“The parties had a tumultuous relationship that has now developed into a mutually respectful partnership.  Both sides have found the recipe for doing what is right in collectively recognizing that employee needs and concerns and employer needs and concerns go hand-in-hand,” said UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, who directs the union’s Gaming Department.

“With a labor agreement now in place, we look forward to a long-term cooperative, respectful and successful partnership that will allow the parties to focus jointly in the effort to bring new business into Caesars Atlantic City and the community,” said Scott Adams, director of UAW Region 9, which includes New Jersey.

The contract is the second agreement reached with Atlantic City casinos after thousands of workers at several casinos organized with the UAW in 2007.  The contract includes, among other benefits, an 18 percent wage increase.

“Given the economic impact our depressed economy has had and continues to have on the hotel and gaming industry in Atlantic City, compounded with the irreparable economic blow casinos in Pennsylvania, Delaware and surrounding states have had, a labor agreement that includes wage increases and other improvements is an agreement we are clearly proud of,” Adams said.

“We applaud our UAW members at Caesars for their patient determination in their effort to achieve a fair and equitable labor agreement that provides among other things, the security of grievance and arbitration rights, layoff and recall rights and seniority rights -- rights that employees at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City wish they had today,” he said.

The UAW, one of the nation's largest and most diverse labor unions, represents more than 8,800 gaming workers in Detroit, Atlantic City, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Indiana.