A Report from HTC President Rich Maroko

So, before it even opened its doors in 2011, Resorts World NYC had signed a legally bind- ing agreement to allow union organizers to talk to workers on-site, to remain neutral during the organizing process (i.e. no anti-union campaign), and to recognize the union as the workers’ official representative after a simple majority signed union cards (rather than going through a government-run election). 

This meant, when Resorts World opened, our organizers were able to enter the facility and speak to workers in the cafeteria. Most of these workers put in 40 hours a week, but lived in poverty. They were making $10 an hour, and the casino offered no real benefits. Several workers were living in homeless shelters. One worker couldn't afford his metro card and had to walk two hours to work. Another lived a 15 minute drive from the casino, but could not afford a car. She spent hours a day commuting to work on four buses. 

Word about our Union’s wages and benefits spread quickly through the facility. Organizers gathered cards from an overwhelming majority of the workers in just a few weeks. Then came the hard part — getting Resorts World to agree to a contract.

A real living wage

After rounds of negotiating with Resorts World, we won nearly every important contract provision including protections against unfair discipline, scheduling rights, and our grievance and arbitration language. But we couldn’t agree on wages. We told Resorts World that the raises they were offering weren’t nearly enough and we wouldn’t accept them.

Fortunately, we had another tool at the bargaining table. Our labor peace agreement with Resorts World included a provision for interest arbitration — which allowed our Union to resolve a contract fight through arbitration rather than a strike. We invoked this right to fight for the wages that we thought the workers deserved. Our argument had three key components:

First, we enlisted expert economists, professors, and industry experts to conduct studies that proved management’s economic proposals were far below an actual living wage in New York City.

Second, we argued that Resorts World was offering wages that were wildly lower than those being paid to HTC members in New York City hotels — not to mention the other benefits that accompany those wages in our union shops.

Third, we helped prepare workers to share their stories with the arbitrator. One worker testified that she spent hours each day commuting to Queens from a homeless shelter in the Bronx. Another shared that they could not afford health insurance, despite working full time.

The arbitrator issued his award on October 18, 2013. He sided with our Union, completed the contract, and transformed minimum wage, zero-benefit jobs into the best gaming jobs in the country. Wages doubled overnight — and tripled by the end of the initial five-year contract.

Life transformed

One of our expert witnesses, Dr. Stephanie Luce, a professor at the City University of New York, conducted a survey of the workforce at Resorts World. Prior to the union contract, she found that a huge majority of the workers relied on public assistance, subsidized housing, and food vouchers; had accumulated crippling credit card debt; were unable to save for their children’s education; and had to work second — and even third — jobs just to get by.

Just six months after the contract, Dr. Luce surveyed the workforce again. The survey revealed that in that brief time, the workers had already experienced a 50% drop in unpaid medical bills, a 46% drop in late rent or mortgage payments, a 67% drop in needing to borrow money to cover bills, a 75% drop in using government assistance for food and medical needs, a 68% drop in holding a second job, and an 80% drop in irregular schedules and on call work.

Now, a full decade later — workers have been able to purchase homes and cars, put themselves and their children through college, travel, and much more. Our Union created nearly 1,000 excellent, middle class jobs at Resorts World; jobs that allow workers to live the full, dignified lives they deserve. These jobs set a new, fair standard in New York State’s growing gaming industry.

In the years since, we’ve gone on to organize and win contracts for every new casino and gaming facility in the State, including Rivers in Schenectady, del Lago in Waterloo, Resorts World Catskills in Monticello, and Resorts World Hudson Valley in Newburgh. We’ve also dramatically improved wages and working conditions for our members at Saratoga Casino and Race Course in Saratoga Springs, Aqueduct and Belmont Racetracks in Queens, and Empire City Casino in Yonkers. Today, we represent over 5,000 gaming workers. Every single one of our gaming contracts include significantly higher wages, affordable benefits, and the world-class protections and rights on the job that we’ve spent nearly 100 years establishing for hospitality workers.