Things already aren’t great for Atlantic City’s casinos. They could get a lot worse if there is a strike of the city’s casino workers.
The Local 54 — the top casino workers union in AC — could strike in five casinos. The union is seeking a new contract, and if it doesn’t get one, a strike could happen as soon as July.
In past years, the union has made concessions to casinos in the city, which has fallen on tough times. Four casinos shut down in 2014, taking away a lot of the union’s leverage for better salaries or benefits.
The strike would affect:
- Bally’s
- Caesars
- Harrah’s
- Tropicana
- Trump Taj Mahal
The union would keep workers active at the other three casinos in town — Borgata, Golden Nugget, and Resorts.
That might serve to further the gap between Borgata and the rest of the field. The casino already takes in about double the revenue of its second-closest competitor in any given month. In May, Borgata saw a 17 percent revenue increase year over year, the only casino to post meaningful gains.
There is still a chance that a deal could be reached before the July 1 deadline for a deal — or that negotiations could be extended beyond that date to keep workers in their jobs and casinos at full operating capacity. But the AFL-CIO has indicated it will back the strike, if no such settlement is reached.
Even without a strike, a number of pressures are already working against the city:
- The city is in a dire financial situation, narrowly avoiding an immediate state takeover of the AC government with legislation passed this spring. Loans are helping to keep the city afloat for now, but without a viable spending plan, the city could still be taken over by the state this year.
- Land-based casino revenue continues to show signs that the bottom hasn’t been reached. Numbers for May were down 2.6 percent. (There was one fewer weekend in May of 2016 than May of last year, however. Revenue from online gambling prevented the month from seeing a bigger decline.)
- There is a referendum slated for November on whether to allow up to two casinos in North Jersey. Opinions vary wildly on the impact of the bill, which is intended to provide an influx of cash for AC, although it could result in further casino closures.
While AC’s casino workers obviously would like to negotiate a better deal. But they don’t exactly come from a position of strength this time around, either, as the city faces uncertain times.
The strike will not serve to make the city stronger in the long term. It would certainly result in lower revenue, at least in the short term, even with replacement workers taking over some or all of the jobs vacated in the strike.
Given the precarious situation Atlantic City already finds itself in, it’s not clear how many of the remaining casinos can endure even a small downtick in revenue.
