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There is trouble brewing between unionized dealers and a local contract at Caesar’s Palace. It’s been two years since any progress was made with the labor contract at the casino. The union leader said that dealers were treating the union like “garbage”. Joe Carbon, the gaming director of the Transport Workers Union, said, “These dealers are professional people who take pride in their jobs, but quite frankly, they are treated like a bunch of second-class citizens.” The allegations that are running rampant in the debate are the direct result of contentious labor negotiations in the union setting. Many companies act different towards unions, often times seeing them as the enemy.

There are approximately 20,000 people who are dealers in the Las Vegas valley. Casinos think they need to control dealers with a hard-hand to retain authority and boost productivity, enforce customer service and move dealers to certain different areas. Director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming Bill Eadington said, “Table games’ managers want to put fear in the mind of dealers that if they do something wrong, they will be disciplined. It is a rough justice type of situation.”

Most employers in right-to-work states such as Nevada have complete discretion to fire nonunion workers. But dealers complain that kind of control turns a casino floor into a troublesome area where the slightest mistake could be grounds for discipline. Casino floors aren’t offices, nor are they like restaurants or retail outlets that sell goods and services. They’re recreational places on sensory overload where emotions run high. Dealers invested in their jobs view themselves as casino liaisons — customer service representatives who can soften the blow of a big loss, congratulate a player who has won and provide information about the casino depending on how receptive the player is to conversation. Dealers who have thrived in these high-stress jobs for years say casinos typically don’t fire dealers over a single mistake. If it’s minor enough, dealers get second or third chances to prove their skills. That could change, however, for dealers who complain about other aspects of their jobs to peers or supervisors, they say. They could be looked at as ‘troublesome’ and be disciplined or even let go. It’s a difficult time for union workers as they try to continue negotiations.