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News Updates Also, some of the older text from the front page will be moved here. |
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7-12-08 Rio Dealers bought management's misdirection. They lost their vote and their voice.
6-3-08
PETITION FOR UNION REPRESENTATION
ELECTION FILED BY THE TWU ON BEHALF OF THE DEALERS AT THE RIO!!!
After receiving Authorization Cards from
an overwhelming majority of the Dealers at the Rio a petition was
filed with the NLRB Tuesday June 3rd, 2008 for a
Union Representation Election! 6-2-08 information moved from front page Part-Time Dealers Did you know that you could be getting more shifts right now if your employer would return to the industry standard of working us one hour on our games between breaks? If you are a Part-Time Dealer coming up a bit short in the "shoulder season," this might not be happening at all if our employer would use the industry standard as ours. Our employer could have more rested Dealers, and Dealers could all be making more money if we returned to the way that it was done in Tahoe from the 1950's until 2004. Learn more about the consequences of hour-twenties here. The Name Change Soon, we will no longer be working for Harrah's Entertainment. TPG/Apollo is changing the name of the company to "Caesars Entertainment Corporation!" How does this relate to the "lipstick on the pig" quote that you find on the TPG!! page? Is this to make the name itself an easier sell when TPG/Apollo unloads the company? Why would a private equity company concern itself with a name change if they were planning on holding our company for a long time? The restructuring will continue...are you next? 5-18-08 Rio Dealers are organizing with TWU. Visit their website www.TWURioDealers.org 5-5-08 Horizon and MontBleu's parent company file for bankruptcy. 5-2-08 Our employer has started to layoff Pit employees. Caesars Palace no longer has Dual Rates in their pit. All Dealer/Supervisor Dual Rate positions were eliminated. You may read more about it here. 4-19-08 Our scheduling process just lost one major level of transparency. We used to be able to find out, on the spot, what shifts are available to us for the "fiscal year." Instead, we must now fill out a form where our schedule is determined behind closed doors in a process that pits Dealers against one another. The process itself has been biased toward Management's whim. If this system were truly 50% merit and 50% seniority, it would have drastically different parameters. 4-9-08 As part of the restructuring, TPG/Apollo is dropping "Harrah's" from the name of the company. It will soon officially be known as "Caesars Entertainment Corporation." 3-29-08 NO TWU buttons are on the floor. Keep in mind who brought them in: a corporation operated by billionaires. David Bonderman ($3.3 billion) and Leon Black ($2 billion) are not Lake Tahoe Dealers. David Bonderman and Leon Black are Gary Loveman's bosses at TPG and Apollo. A new letter was posted in TWU's corner of the Dealer memo board at work. One of the shots that they took at TWU was the lack of a Tahoe office. For local Union hopefuls, the office is our homes. We need our Union to help keep us in the same homes where we meet. The letter made the claim that 30 years of casino experience is sufficient to represent a crew with well over 2000 years of dealing experience. They ignore the fact that, with our Union, we will have representatives with over 2000 years in the industry sitting at the table, because Dealers are at the table! Anybody wishing to be your Representative should have no problem doing what true Representatives do for the privilege... The clock is ticking The Nevada Supreme court heard the case regarding the legality of seizing Dealer tips for redistribution on April 7, 2008. Protect yourself and your friends! This affects all tip earners, waitresses and bartenders included. Read about Harrah's new owners under the TPG!! tab above. Do not "wait and see" Harrah's confiscate our tips only to have to fight to get our money back. We can prevent it today! Why we need our Union 1. If there is any sense of urgency, this is it. The Nevada Supreme Court has heard the case involving Wynn Dealers. If Wynn Dealers lose, HARRAH'S will be able to legally seize our tips and give to other coworkers to save money on payroll. We can stop the seizing of tips by voting in our Union. This is our only way to be LEGALLY PROTECTED. Have you submitted your card yet? If not, you are granting Harrah's permission to take your tips!
Are you loyal to these billionaires? Do you trust billionaires more than your fellow Dealers? The company is being changed to sell. On the outside chance that the Nevada Supreme Court rules in favor of Wynn Dealers, and we dodge that bullet, we are still staring down the barrels of #2, TPG and the Shingle Springs casino. 2. Harrah's is owned by private equity investors, who have a history of slashing jobs, and a casino opens in Shingle Springs this fall. We have no guarantees about our job security. One of the "consequences" that Harrah's gave us about needing hour-twenties was that our tokes would be affected by Shingle Springs. Harrah's DID NOT mention how this may affect OUR JOBS, and Harrah's and TPG have provided no guarantee that our jobs will be safe. Do not "wait and see" your way to the unemployment line. 3. Without our Union, we are at the mercy of our employer. They brought us hour-twenties, and we work harder than every other dealer in the state! We have suffered loss after loss without any legal representative to stop it. With our Union, we need to first STOP THE BLEEDING by locking in "Status Quo" and then do our best to regain what we have lost since Gary Loveman jumped from Harvard directly into Harrah's elite executive staff. The bleeding does not stop until after enough cards are in! 4. Our Union will bring us rights that we have never had. It's new to us, but not new to America. The NLRA provides us with our only defense against corporate greed. It brings a Union Constitution and democracy to our workplace. Bill Harrah and Harvey Gross looked after their workers. Since their deaths, the corporation has increasingly made its decisions with no regard for our well-being. Gary Loveman has demonstrated a policy in stark contrast to that of our casinos' founders. We need to have a Contract that will help secure us, our friends and coworkers, and keep us where we need to be. Private Equity fights us It is expected that TPG/Apollo, Harrah's new owners and future sellers, will continue fighting us every step of the way. They have hired professional Union busters. They have lied to us. They will continue to lie. Learn more about UNION BUSTING. Click here or on the tab at the top of the page.
3-26-08 This site was finally updated. Welcome back. 3-10-08 New Dealers Forum Online
If you would like to post your questions and comments for Dealers everywhere to see, click on the button. If you would like to "network" with Dealers from here and elsewhere, there is a new place to do it. If you have grown tired of the responses provided here (and who can blame you!), you can now have a much greater variety of responses from Dealers everywhere. It is just getting started. You will notice that there are not very many comments posted yet. Register, "Favorite"/Bookmark it, post your comments and check back... Contrary to what Harrah's may want you to believe, registering WILL NOT result in anybody from TWU knocking on your door! (copied from "Link of the Week")
2-25-08 THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW. WE MUST SUBMIT OUR TWU CARDS! April 7 has been set as the date to hear the legality of Steve Wynn seizing Dealers' tokes for redistribution. So far, over the last year-and-a-half, Harrah's has provided NO GUARANTEES that our tips will not suffer a similar fate! Our Union is our only defense!!! 2-16-08 New chips are on the floor. Unfortunately, they do not replace any of the older "Lead" chips. 2-7-08 Special Milestone Reached Webmasters are not given information about exactly who has been visiting the site, but there are reports showing exactly which IP addresses have been here, for how long, and the number of page hits of the visitors. The results are in, and the #1 (12.104.204.211) and #3 (12.104.204.212) visiting IP addresses* are of...drum roll please... "HARRAH'S ENTERTAINMENT INC" in Memphis, Tennessee. Between these two addresses, "HARRAH'S ENTERTAINMENT INC" passed the 100-hour milestone this week and racked up more than 8800 page views in the process. Congratulations! 100 hours amounts to 2.5 full 40-hour work weeks spent on this site, and it's not just regular business hours. Weekends? Harrah's Memphis computers were here. Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day? Harrah's was here. Martin Luther King Jr. Day? Harrah's was here. Super Bowl Sunday? Harrah's was here. That does not count the amount of time that other local Harrah's Management has been here. If Dealers have nothing to gain from our Union, why would people sitting at Harrah's computers be spending so much time here? *The #2 visitor is a "googlebot" for the search engine. 1-30-08 TWU Gaming Division Announced
TWU International
President James Little announced in Las Vegas a new division of the
TWU International..."GAMING DIVISION". On January 30 a
"Special Union Meeting" was called in Las Vegas. In attendance were
TWU President James Little, Executive Vice President Harry Lombardo,
Secretary/Treasurer Joe Gordon, TWU International Organizers Joe
Carbon and Steve Roberts along with approximately 200 casino Dealers
representing 10-12 different Las Vegas casinos, including Caesars
Palace, The Wynn, Rio, Mirage, Mandalay Bay, Harrah's, Paris, Rio,
Flamingo and Bally's. Mr. Little appointed
Joe Carbon as the first Director of the newly formed division. Joe
has been instrumental as a TWU International Organizer in helping
organize Dealers throughout Nevada. Congratulations Joe! With the new Gaming
Division, TWU has solidified their commitment to the Dealers of this
Country. Prior to the announcement, the TWU consisted of three
Divisions, Transport, Airlines and Rail Divisions. The addition of a
new Division in the 70 year old Union is a huge step for the TWU. The addition of the Gaming
Division is also a giant step for Dealers it represents and those
who are currently organizing. So far, TWU represents Dealers
from two of the premier casinos in the world, and the ranks of
Dealers represented by TWU will continue grow. With the growth
of TWU comes more strength, and the strength promotes growth.
It is easy to see why Harrah's is fighting this every step of the
way.
1-28-08 It's official. We now work for a private company. Gary Loveman gets his bonus and contract extension, and we are still without guarantees. ----------------------------------- This previous text is being moved out of the front page. Read about Flamingo Dealers' meetings hosted by our former president! Scroll down to post #17 here for a summary. The First Union Accomplishment Once we vote in our Union, Harrah's cannot change anything relating to our work situation. It is an important first step in securing our future. It's called "Status Quo." Harrah's cannot, for example, increase premiums on health care. Read this thread from the Atlantic City Dealers' website for a current, real example. It should be noted that Trump Plaza has a Union, and Trump Taj Mahal does not. The likely reason why the benefits office responded, "I cannot answer that question," is that the person posing the question would see that there are benefits of Unions prior to Contract ratification. For Union Dealers at Trump Plaza, there is not yet a Contract, but the bleeding has stopped. Nothing changes once we petition, and that's a fact. Harrah's will not be able to change anything, including seizing our tips for redistribution. Please get your cards in! Living in the Land of Make Believe There are two faces of our employer. The second face of Harveys/ Harrah's emerging since the week of the meetings is not consistent with what we have experienced in the past seven years. Welcome to the world of Union busting. No matter what happens and whatever changes you feel in your workplace, remember that Harrah's executives make whatever unilateral decisions that they see fit. They do not want to give up their ultimate authority over us. We have been supplying Management with our honest opinions since the inception of both the EOS Surveys and Turning the Tables and have seen little go our way. These are, in fact, two typical anti-Union tools that are described in Martin Levitt's book, Confessions of a Union Buster. Members of "Turning the
Tables" committee: Management can pretend that "Turning the Tables" and EOS are what they say they are, but for us they are a farce. The is proof in the fact that, from the time of their inception until their first Union-busting meetings, nothing significant has been done for us. Try as they may, their attempts to legitimize "TTT" and EOS are just an act. How stupid do they think we are?
1-21-08 The Harrah's sale is expected to close on January 28. As much as we would hope that things get better under the new owner, we still will have the same CEO. He will have his 94,000,000 bonus, and we are still working hour-twenties. 1-21-08 Harrah's still has done nothing to remove potentially hazardous materials from our workplace. The following text has been removed from the LTD.com front page. Nobody here has forgotten. Management, please properly rectify the lead situation. It is simple decency to your workers to replace potentially hazardous materials in our work environment. You may send our "Safety Chips" to the address at the bottom of the site for our efforts to eliminate hazardous materials from our workplace. Obviously, this one will get us a lot of cool swag. Outside of second-hand smoke and emergency procedures, Management typically does not address a Dealers' safety issue in the prominent way in which this one has been. We look forward to handling our new lead-free chips soon! 1-15-08 Read about Flamingo Dealers' meetings hosted by a former president of ours. Dealers in Las Vegas have been forced to attend a similar set of overbearing meetings as us. Mirage Dealers' website is going up, and TWU Local 721's site is already running. 1-10-08 Welcome back! Hopefully, everybody dug out, played in the snow, and survived the storms with no more damage than a few sore muscles. 1-5-08 Finally, Winter... Get out there and live it. Nothing new will be posted until after this storm is over. After you dig out: ski, snowboard, snowshoe, snowmobile, take the kids sledding, photograph, or just enjoy a book by the fire. This is another thing that makes Tahoe special. Nothing about these moments have been provided by Harrah's, and its executives have consistently demonstrated that they care more about their bonuses than our well-being. Management continues to take advantage of our need for times like these in our lives. There is much that we need to address, but now is not the time. We're almost through the busiest time of the year, and this snowfall could not have arrived at a better time. Enjoy it. Be safe. 12-23-07 Caesars Palace Dealers won the election. It
was a blowout, 380-128. Quite the opposite of
the picture that Harrah’s paints of Unions, there were no riots. There is no “aftermath” of which to speak. No tipped-over smoldering
skeletons of cars are to be found in the path of this Union victory.
12-23-07 Extraordinary measures have been taken by serving Harrah's Management with a Triple Dog Dare. Previous requests for legally binding guarantees have fallen on unresponsive executives. For the holiday season, we offered the highest challenge for Harrah's to prove that it is trustworthy and can stand up to "represent" its loyal employees with very reasonable guarantees. This short starting list remains unchanged, and the Triple-Dog-Dare still stands. Measures like these should only be taken in extraordinary circumstances, such as situations surrounding a tongue and a frosty flagpole, but it came to this if Harrah's cannot satisfy the simple need for us to have guarantees in the workplace that these policies will never worsen. Harrah's, has apparently passed by its triple-dog-dare as guarantees for its workers are apparently not a top priority. Is it really so much to ask the following?
Harrah's Management repeatedly asked TWU to provide guarantees where it is not even legally possible for TWU to do so. Yes, in our meetings, all of that talk of asking TWU to "provide guarantees" could not even be legally done. Harrah's can provide guarantees but chooses to not do so. Maybe they were waiting for the granddaddy of all challenges, the triple-dog-dare. Alas, there has been no response. TWU cannot promise anything outside of doing its best to effectively represent us. 12-22-07 Caesars Palace Dealers vote in a pivotal election. More information to come... 12-1-07 The first round of meetings have ended, and the dust is beginning to settle. All of the meetings that we have will have responses in "The Meetings" button on the front page, and there is a new "Myths" button to rectify factual inaccuracies and misleading information. 11-25-07 [edited] The sideshows have already started. The vote on the matrix, discussed below, will hardly help a thing. If the vote goes against the matrix, those who have done well with it will be unhappy and be less likely to submit their CONFIDENTIAL TWU CARDS. If the vote goes for the matrix, dealers with the most seniority will see elections as an act of futility. Management can hold it over our heads that "this is what we wanted." There is a way to keep every last one of us from losing anything that we have, including schedules. We would like to discuss it at our Union meetings. This sideshow is not what we need. That was an unusual meeting. If you were wondering what in the world was up with the Buzz of 11/24, you have found the answer. THIS IS IT! They are scared, because they understand that when
we truly want to be a Union, there is no amount of intimidation that
can prevent it. We have nothing to be afraid of. Outside of the EOS
and their own reconnaissance, they have no idea who is involved with
this, nor exactly who has sent in their TWU Cards. Join us.
Influence change. Do your part. We have the power to control our
future, and we only need for everybody to perform two
simple
tasks.
In case you missed it, here is a breakdown of the
buzz session of November 24. Test them yourself. We are not scientists. www.LakeTahoeDealers.com did its own tests. There would be no mention of this if there were no areas of major concern. We know how to follow the directions and how to interpret if a color is red, pink, or orange. We are not stupid. Dealers, if you need to see for yourself, buy your own lead test kit, and get your own chips. You may need to get a friend from outside work to pick you up some. The tests run less than $10 per kit of two. If you were wondering about what the makers of the chips had to say, this is an excerpt.
Although testing has proven the presence of lead in the chips, the
mere presence of lead is not sufficient to conclude that there is a
health risk… Right there, in the chip manufacturer's statement, are the words "testing has proven the presence of lead." How much lead is safe? What about the older "Top Hat" chips that are still in the trays? Are our managers hazardous materials experts? Do you trust their findings? They are not an independent laboratory. Again, do yourself a favor. Buy a lead test kit. There are two swabs per kit. Get an old, worn-down Harvey's $1 chip. Get a newer Harrah's $1 chip (all of the chips should have a top hat/cane logo on the border). Clean up the chips if they need it. Rinse and dry them very well. Gather your friends/witnesses to help make sure that everything is being done correctly. If you are at a party, this may kill your buzz. Carefully read the instructions. Do the test. Next, ask yourself if you would rather have a Contract with your employer. 2. The second major topic of our buzz.
Suddenly they want to give us a say over our own future. We are
given a vote on how much we would like to have the Matrix determine
our rankings versus other factors (seniority). submit your CONFIDENTIAL TWU CARD today. 3. No more drink coasters. They tried it. Honestly, it was not a bad idea. Most dealers had no problem giving a coaster to qualifying players, but we did it much more discreetly than instructed. If they would have solely stocked the upgrade coaster on the table, it would not have been such a mess. The reason why this issue was put on this site, and will remain here, is to shed more light on the extent that Harrah’s will go to in order to save a buck. We are done with being the buck that they save. The doily policy would not have failed if we were consulted properly. We want to help our company, but we need to be properly recognized first. The only way that we can get any guarantee is with...say it together...A Contract! The doily issue doesn't really affect us anyway. What about Hour Twenties? We are still stuck with that one. Take a look at our central issue. Management has been ignoring all of our real issues, and they suddenly appear to be interested in bargaining. Just imagine how much give there will be when they must, BY LAW, bargain with us. 11-25-07 Foxwoods dealers won their Union vote! Caesars Palace is next! We must submit our confidential cards if we want our own vote. 11-25-07 The Feedback Form is working. We apologize for any frustration you may have felt in trying to contact us. Some of your feedback was lost, the hit counter erased several hundred visits, but at least nobody had to breathe in smoke while handling lead. You may submit your confidential information or questions using our form. Some personal information is requested but not required. You may maintain your anonymity. If in doubt, first save your feedback to your own computer (before hitting "Submit") should we encounter a similar problem in the future.
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