Casino Update
Foxwoods and Aztar workers vote to form their own unions
A year ago Billy Shea would have stepped to the front of the line to vote down the union.
“I was a company man,” said Shea, a dealer at Foxwoods Casino Resort in Norwich, Conn. “I believed that you went to work, the company took care of you and that was all you needed.”
Not any more.
Now Shea is one of about 2,600 Foxwoods dealers who overwhelmingly voted to join the UAW on Nov. 24.
“We are just ecstatic,” he said. “I never had any idea I would be standing on this side of the fence, but now I know that it’s the only place where you can stand and be counted.”
Jacqueline Little, a 15-year dealer at Foxwoods, said she and her co-workers “were prepared to do whatever it took using honesty and facts to show that we knew what we wanted.
“There’s now a sense of empowerment, and even those who didn’t support the union are excited that we have one,” added Little.
The election follows another organizing success in Evansville, Ind., where 183 dealers and full-time supervisors at Casino Aztar recently voted 106-59 to become part of the UAW.
“The recent casino election victories in Connecticut and Indiana are part of a movement of dealers for workplace justice,” said UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn, who directs organizing for the union’s Technical, Office and Professional (TOP) Department.
“When Foxwoods casino workers decided they wanted a union, nothing was going to stop them,” said Bob Madore, UAW Region 9A director. “They stood their ground and fought with dignity for dignity.”
