Workers who had been at the top rate for 12 years gained only 80 cents an hour, and overall wages stagnated around an average of $ 11. 9 billion at the industry’s nadir in 2013.ĭuring that rough period, four casinos closed, and 10, 000 gaming and hospital industry jobs disappeared. 2 billion in 2006, then collapsed during the Great Recession to $ 2.
Gaming - as the gambling business prefers to call itself - revived this fabled but faded New Jersey oceanfront resort town starting in 1978 when the first casino opened. The local economy depends heavily on the gaming industry and, consequently, on the stable, “middle-class” incomes that unionized workers have won. “The real fight in Atlantic City is keeping the middle class in the gaming industry.”Īfter negotiations throughout Wednesday night, the union announced that it had reached a tentative agreement with Caesars Entertainment, which owns three of the properties where contracts are expiring on Thursday night and cover 4, 000 UNITE HERE workers. “A strike is likely at one or more of these properties,” Local 54 president Bob McDevitt said earlier this week.
