A Fair Deal

A Fair Deal: Atlantic City Casino Workers Protest

September 4th, 2017

As one looks through these photos of casino workers and their supporters standing in solidarity at a rally in Atlantic City back in 2008, they see a visual representation of the people of New Jersey: men and women of various races and a multitude of ethnicities.  

Historically, a union’s ability to act as a unifier of all working people is one of organized labor’s greatest sources of strength. Though the history of the labor movement most certainly has terrible stains of racial and sex-based discrimination, as does just about every aspect of American society, progressive unionism has always been at the forefront of racial equality and women's rights in this country, dating back to the 1800's. 

For example, Walter Reuther, the prominent leader of the United Auto Workers union from 1946 to 1970 (the same union representing the Atlantic City casino workers in this photo series), supported and marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was an early advocate of Cesar Chavez and the farm workers’ movement and was an early advocate for automobile emission control and other environmental protections, as well as nuclear non-proliferation. In support of black UAW activists, Reuther worked through the WWII era to eradicate the divisive racial discrimination that had been upending the union itself. Reuther and the UAW would go on to leverage the political influence of the union to help advance Civil Rights legislation, national healthcare policy and helped underwrite the NAACP’s legal fight in Brown v Board of Education.

The UAW and their revered leader were certainly not without some of their own historical problems and compromises, but Reuther fundamentally believed that racial justice, the advancement of women’s workplace equity, the fair treatment of those of all ethnic backgrounds and labor rights were all inextricably linked.  The potential for unions to act as a unifier of all working people has always made them a threat to employers and the ruling class of America. Walter Reuther himself was seen as one of the most dangerous men in America in his time by conservative politicians for this very reason.  

The passing of time has made this potential even more poignant.  The workers in these photos marched under a building plastered with the name of a man that would become president of our country, in part, by exploiting the racial divisions and ethnic tensions in our nation.  Trump was notorious for ripping off contractors and his employees in Atlantic City, especially in relation to his high profile bankruptcies.  Yet, only eight years after taking these photos of workers at his casino fighting for a fair contract, Trump was running as the savior of America's working people.  Some of his campaign success came from his ability to exploit the pain suffered by working people, especially workers who had been caught in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 (NAFTA).  

NAFTA removed trade regulations that opened the door for American companies to move their operations to Mexico.  This placed American workers' wages in direct competition with Mexican wages.  This not only directly eliminated union jobs through off-shoring, but also greatly reduced union bargaining power due to the new threat of companies potentially moving operations out the country.  UAW members in New Jersey and across the country were victims of this very trade deal.  

Ironically, President Clinton would posthumously award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Walter Reuther in 1995, only a year after signing NAFTA into law and damning thousands of members of the union Reuther once led.  The trumpeting of the economic injustices that resulted from NAFTA was well deserved, but they could not have come from a more unsuitable messenger.  It was a bait and switch tactic, placing the decline of the American middle class on other workers, instead of where it belongs: disastrous economic policy orchestrated to benefit the ultra-wealthy, like the 45th president.  

One of the interesting ways in which the changes to modern labor dynamics have played out is by larger unions, who have traditionally represented industrial and manufacturing occupations, beginning to organize occupations in the expanding service sector. This seeming mismatch demonstrated in the photo series of the United Auto Workers representing Atlantic City Casino workers may actually be well suited.

In New Jersey, auto plants that were once dotted throughout the state are sadly gone. As the Associated Press reported in April of 2005, "The last automobile manufactured in New Jersey rolled off the assembly line to little fanfare Wednesday, a quiet but momentous end to an industry that once employed thousands of workers and helped fuel the state’s economy."

The UAW’s existing infrastructure and experience remained but suffered a dwindling membership. At the same time, the growing service industry in the state was undergoing worsening working conditions, as present in the casino industry, creating a growing demand for representation. Atlantic City casino workers had a need, but limited history of union organizing drives or participation in collective bargaining, making for this unusual marriage. Similar circumstances lead the Steelworkers Union working to organize nurses in New Brunswick, NJ just years earlier. 

The cultural differences between these unions and the new industries they help organize is certainly going to take some ironing out. In addition, larger unions crossing industry lines, particularly into the service industry, has caused conflict within the labor movement. Unfortunately, the battered state of organized labor has sometimes left unions in competition, instead of in solidarity. 

Forming a union in our country should not be an obstacle course of fear and intimidation.  It is a worker's legal right to do so and their employer's opinion should be obsolete in this decision.  

The attempts to rewrite or reform America's labor laws to better facilitate those rights have, not unexpectedly, fallen flat in recent times.  The Democratic Party, who was once a leading advocate for unions and working people in this country, seems to have traded it in for returned corporate support, now only giving lip service to a cause they find politically untenable.  Organized labor had staked their hopes on President Obama's support of the Employee Free Choice Act rebalancing the scales in union organizing efforts, but it too would come to be put on the political back burner and result in millions of workers continuing to be left without representation, in an economy with widening income and wealth inequality. 

It also left many workers, union members included, who have felt like they have been politically abandoned by the Democratic Party, to fall under the pseudo-populist spell of the Trump campaign.  In an act of desperation, many working people were willing, despite distaste for much of his rhetoric, to take a gamble on something that appeared to be different. Though, in reality, the billionaire’s proclaimed policy goals are only aimed at reinforcing the economically unjust status quo and will continue to leave these same working people with more of the same.  

Unions were a defining factor in building the middle class of this country, but it was not just handed to them on a silver platter, like the new President's fortune.

The things we take for granted as workers in America today like the 8-hour workday, overtime, fair wages, safe working conditions, the eradication of child labor, laws prohibiting race and sex discrimination on the job or basic pension and healthcare benefits were the result of bitterly, long fought battles, where workers endured severe hardship and many lost their lives fighting to achieve these goals. Recognizing this history makes the distressing deterioration of many of these same working conditions in our country today even more troubling.

The middle class of our nation was built by working people banding together to fight for their rightful share of the work they do.  If allowed a fair shot, the people of this country can do it again.

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