National Labor Relations Board issues ruling rejecting management claims

UAW News Release, 10/15/2007

EVANSVILLE, INDIANA -- Dealers at Casino Aztar, a riverboat casino in Evansville, Ind., have won the right to vote to form their own union. Some 183 dealers, dual rate dealers and full-floor supervisors will be eligible to vote in a union-representation election.

Dealers and other employees from Casino Aztar contacted the UAW for help in organizing a union. In September a supermajority of dealers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking to join the UAW.

Casino Aztar management would not consent to an election and claimed some dealers performed managerial tasks and should not be allowed to form a union.

The Indianapolis office of the NLRB held a thorough and extensive hearing to determine election eligibility. In a 26-page decision, it ruled that dealers, dual-rate dealers and “full floor supervisors” are eligible to form a union, and specifically rejected the employer’s argument that dual-rate dealers and “full floor supervisors” are part of management and not eligible for collective bargaining. The next step is for the NLRB to conduct a union representation election in the coming weeks.

“This is a great ruling for workers,” said Maurice “Mo” Davison, director of UAW Region 3, which includes Indiana. “Workers are ready to move forward.”

“It’s an exciting time for workers at Casino Aztar, who are joining a growing movement of casino workers around the country who want to improve their workplace,” said UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn, who directs the union’s Technical, Office and Professional Department. “The UAW is proud to assist them.”

Casino Aztar is owned by Columbia Sussex Corp., which also owns the Tropicana in Atlantic City, N.J, where more than 80 percent of dealers and dual-rate dealers voted for UAW representation on Aug. 26.

The UAW represents more than 6,000 gaming workers in Michigan, Rhode Island and New Jersey.

The Casino Aztar dealers’ organizing effort comes as dealers around the country – from Las Vegas to Atlantic City – are forming unions. Recently the UAW filed a petition for an election with the NLRB on behalf of 3,000 dealers at Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, Conn.