{"id":132904,"date":"2020-04-13T10:03:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T17:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=132904"},"modified":"2020-04-13T12:13:21","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T19:13:21","slug":"atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City Casinos Have Turned Their Backs on Workers, Says Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlantic City\u2019s casino industry has betrayed workers and \u201cput them in the poorhouse,\u201d according to Bob McDevitt, president of union Unite Here Local 54. He told The Press of Atlantic City<\/em> this week that the casinos should not have turned their backs on workers during the coronavirus crisis.<\/p>\r\n

\"Atlantic
Bob McDevitt says casinos have the means to retain their workers. But others are concerned that some operators won\u2019t survive the lockdown. (Image: Craig Matthews\/POAC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Despite being eligible for a share of $425 billion in corporate loans and employee-retention tax credits as part of the federal stimulus package, the casinos have furloughed almost all their 26,450 employees.<\/p>\r\n

Over 10,000 of those, including cleaners, cooks, bartenders, bellmen, food and\u00a0beverage servers, bussers, and dishwashers, are represented by Unite Here Local 54.<\/p>\r\n

Union Overwhelmed<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

Most Atlantic City casinos gave just two weeks\u2019 severance pay to workers.<\/p>\r\n

Now, union officials say they are overwhelmed by the numbers seeking help filing for unemployment insurance and are fielding calls 10 hours a day, six days a week.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

[The casinos are] sitting on a pile of money and watching the chaos around them,\u201d said McDevitt. \u201cI don\u2019t know how they expect the workers to come back and think their employer has done the right thing by them.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\u201cThere is absolutely no excuse for an industry that has done quite well to turn their backs on these workers\u2026\u201d he added.<\/p>\r\n

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy ordered Atlantic City\u2019s nine casinos to close March 16. It\u2019s the first gaming shutdown for the city since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, but that hiatus lasted just three days. There\u2019s little indication as to how long the current situation will last or when furloughed employees may be able to return.<\/p>\r\n

Biggest Blow in a Lifetime<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

Some may never. Clyde Barrow, professor of political science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley who specializes in the casino industry, told The New York Post<\/em> last week that some of Atlantic City\u2019s casinos will not make it out the other side, calling it \u201cthe biggest blow to the casino industry that we\u2019ve seen in a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t seen it play out yet. but if you look at the economic numbers that are going start coming out in the coming weeks, this portends to be a worse economic downturn than we even saw in the Great Recession,\u201d said Barrow.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThat means some casinos won\u2019t survive,\u201d he added. \u201cSome may go into bankruptcy, as happened back in 2006 and 2010.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlantic City\u2019s casino industry has betrayed workers and \u201cput them in the poorhouse,\u201d according to Bob McDevitt, president of union Unite Here Local 54. He told The Press of Atlantic City this week that the casinos should not have turned their backs on workers during the coronavirus crisis. Despite being eligible for a share of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":132905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAtlantic City Casinos Have Turned Their Backs on Workers, Says Union<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Atlantic City casinos should have stuck with their employees through the coronavirus shut down, says Bob McDevitt of Unite Here Local 54 workers union.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Atlantic City Casinos Have Turned Their Backs on Workers, Says Union\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Atlantic City casinos should have stuck with their employees through the coronavirus shut down, says Bob McDevitt of Unite Here Local 54 workers union.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-13T17:03:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-13T19:13:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/bob.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"871\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union\/\",\"name\":\"Atlantic City Casinos Have Turned Their Backs on Workers, Says Union\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/bob.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-13T17:03:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-13T19:13:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Atlantic City casinos should have stuck with their employees through the coronavirus shut down, says Bob McDevitt of Unite Here Local 54 workers union.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/atlantic-city-casinos-have-turned-their-backs-on-workers-says-union\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/bob.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/bob.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":871,\"caption\":\"Bob McDevitt says casinos have the means to retain their workforce, but others are concerned some operators won\u2019t survive lockdown. 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