Atlantic City Casino Alliance supports smoking ban
The union representing table game dealers at Atlantic City casinos is supporting an effort to pass state legislation mandating that nine casinos have smoke-free spaces.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) represents dealers at the city's three casinos: Caesars, Bally's and Tropicana. A prerequisite for these workers' continued employment is their exposure to dangerous passive smoking.
Shawn Fain, the international president of the nation's 12th-largest union, this week backed state efforts to stamp out smoking in Atlantic City casinos.
"Thousands of UAW members...are exposed to the toxic hazards of second-hand smoke every day," Fein wrote in testimony to state lawmakers. "Guests are exposing themselves to the direct exposure of cigarette/tobacco smoke to It was blown into the face for up to eight hours, and due to the nature of their job, table servers could not take their eyes off the table, so they endured the smoke surrounding their workplace.”
Currently, smoking is allowed in designated areas on the Atlantic City floor. Each casino is limited to allowing smoking on 25% of its gaming floor.
Split Topic
Legislation to eliminate casino smoking allowances proposed by the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, passed in 2006, has been introduced to the state Legislature in 2021. The current legislation, Senate Bill 264 and Assembly Bill 2151, was introduced in January 2022.
The same bills already have enough bipartisan support from co-sponsors to pass their respective chambers. Despite broad support, the Senate Health, Human Services and Seniors Committee failed to advance SB264 when it considered the measure on Nov. 30.
State Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-North Middlesex), who sponsored the Senate casino smoking bill and chairs the Senate Health Committee, said he was one vote short of the simple majority needed to pass the bill. Committee Republicans said they need more time to weigh the contributions submitted by casinos. They believe the smoking ban will reduce gambling and result in around 2,500 job losses.
The casinos are supported by Unite Here Local 54, the union that represents about 10,000 resort employees in Atlantic City. Unite Here doesn't represent gaming workers like the UAW does, but instead supports servers, bartenders, cooks, porters and housekeepers.
Local 54 President Donna DeCaprio said in July that banning smoking in casinos "would be a suicide pact."
Grassroots movement
Many casino workers, including those represented by the United Auto Workers union, say their careers put their health at risk. The effort to eliminate smoking in casinos is led by a grassroots coalition called Casino Employees Against the Effects of Smoking (CEASE).
We are the only workers in our state who are forced to choose between their health and their paycheck. It’s been almost two decades,” CEASE said in a statement.
Finn agreed.
"Workers should leave the workplace in the same condition they arrived in," UAW leader said. "Union. Non-union. Whether it's a factory, an office, a casino or every workplace in between, worker safety must be a priority across the state. A top priority for every employer and employee.”
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Source: www.casino.org
