An Atlantic City casino union that represents table game dealers at Bally’s, Caesars, and Tropicana has decided to end its membership in the AFL-CIO. This decision comes after the national trade federation did not support its efforts to ban indoor smoking in casinos.
The situation escalated recently when Atlantic City casino workers and labor activists gathered outside the Mercer County Civil Courthouse in April 2024. The gathering followed the United Auto Workers (UAW) filing a lawsuit against New Jersey, arguing that allowing smoking in casinos unlawfully compromised workers’ rights. The local UAW chapter, which covers Atlantic City table game dealers, is now planning to break away from the AFL-CIO due to the lack of backing on this critical health issue.
Daniel Vicente Jr., Director of UAW Region 9, shared with NPR that the union’s New Jersey chapter will sever ties with the AFL-CIO. Vicente expressed outrage at the state-level AFL-CIO and other unions that sought an injunction against the UAW’s attempts to eliminate indoor smoking in casinos. “I cannot express how furious our institution is at the New Jersey state-level AFL and the other unions that filed an injunction status against us,” Vicente stated. “This is a moral, health, and safety issue.”
In April, the UAW helped casino workers file a lawsuit against the State of New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy, and NJ Health Commissioner Kaitlan Baston. The lawsuit challenged the state’s allowance of designated smoking areas in casinos, alleging that this policy endangered workers’ safety.
The UAW seeks to ban casino smoking to protect its table game members, but this stance is not echoed by Unite Here Local 54. This union represents non-gaming resort workers, such as housekeepers and servers, across all nine Atlantic City casinos. Unite Here contends that a smoking ban would cut gaming revenues, potentially threatening around 3,000 jobs. Consequently, Unite Here, assisted by the AFL-CIO, filed an injunction against the UAW’s lawsuit, arguing that a smoking ban would harm the city’s economic health.
Unite Here claimed in a Superior Court filing that a total smoking ban would jeopardize thousands of jobs, thereby endangering the wages, health, welfare benefits, and retirement benefits of its members. Superior Court Judge Patrick Bartels ruled in favor of the casinos, stating that the state’s specific allowance of smoking in casinos did not infringe upon worker protections under the New Jersey Constitution.
Vicente criticized the AFL-CIO for failing to support the UAW’s mission to ensure safe working conditions. “That organization has been actively undermining our efforts to protect the health and safety of our members,” he said.
The AFL-CIO’s mission, as stated on its website, is to unite 60 national and international unions to negotiate better pay, benefits, worker rights, workplace health and safety, and gender equality for their 12.5 million members.
The debate over casino smoking continues, with anti-smoking advocates in New Jersey rejecting the argument that a smoking ban would hurt gaming revenues. They cite Parx Casino near Philadelphia as an example, noting its status as the top revenue generator among Pennsylvania’s 17 casinos. Parx and its sister property, Parx Casino Shippensburg, are the only smoke-free casinos in Pennsylvania, leading some to believe that nonsmokers prefer these establishments while other area casinos share the smoking clientele.
Unite Here Local 54 President Donna DeCaprio, who welcomed Bartels’ ruling, asserted that the union has been critical in creating a safer environment for both workers and customers. She emphasized that the union “will continue to focus on solutions that both improve workers’ safety and protect their jobs.”
