Current:Home > ContactUnion asks judge to dismiss anti-smoking lawsuit targeting Atlantic City casinos -WealthSync Hub
Union asks judge to dismiss anti-smoking lawsuit targeting Atlantic City casinos
View
Date:2025-04-12 18:19:05
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City’s main casino workers union on Monday asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a different union that seeks to ban smoking at the city’s nine casinos.
Local 54 of the Unite Here union said in a filing in state Superior Court that a third of the 10,000 workers it represents would be at risk of losing their jobs and the means to support their families if smoking were banned.
Currently, smoking is allowed on 25% of the casino floor. But those areas are not contiguous, and the practical effect is that secondhand smoke is present in varying degrees throughout the casino floor.
A lawsuit brought earlier this month by the United Auto Workers, which represents dealers at the Bally’s, Caesars and Tropicana casinos, seeks to overturn New Jersey’s indoor smoking law, which bans it in virtually every workplace except casinos.
Nancy Erika Smith, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit, reacted incredulously to the request by Local 54.
“I have never seen a union fight against the health and safety of their members, not once,” she said. “Luckily, Unite’s economic arguments, while false, have absolutely no relevance to the constitutional question at hand.”
Donna DeCaprio is president of Local 54, which represents hotel workers, beverage servers, baggage handlers, public area cleaners and other workers at the nine casinos.
“We support the health and safety of our members, and believe that improvements to the current work environment must be made,” she said Monday. “A balance needs to be reached that will both protect worker health and preserve good jobs.”
DeCaprio said a total smoking ban would be “catastrophic” for Atlantic City, adding that between 50 to 72% of all gambling revenue won from in-person gamblers comes from smoking sections.
The union endorses compromise legislation introduced earlier this year that would keep the current 25% limit of the casino floor on which smoking can occur.
But it would allow smoking in unenclosed areas of the casino floor that contain slot machines and are designated as smoking areas that are more than 15 feet away from table games staffed by live dealers. It also would allow the casinos to offer smoking in enclosed, separately ventilated smoking rooms with the proviso that no worker can be assigned to work in such a room against their will.
Whether to ban smoking is one of the most controversial issues not only in Atlantic City casinos, but in other states where workers have expressed concern about secondhand smoke. They are waging similar campaigns in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Kansas and Virginia.
“A total smoking ban would place thousands of jobs at risk, endangering the wages, health and welfare benefits and retirement benefits of Local 54 members and their families,” the union wrote in its court filing.
It noted that in 2008, when Atlantic City’s City Council imposed a short-lived total smoking ban, casino revenues fell by 19.8%, within the first week, leading to the enactment of the current 25% smoking area on the casino floors.
Local 54 also noted that nearby casinos in Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut allow smoking, and stand to take a sizeable chunk of Atlantic City’s business if smoking were ended
It predicted 3,000 Atlantic City casino jobs would be lost in such a scenario.
Workers pushing for a smoking ban, including many table games dealers, reject those projections, saying that going smoke-free would actually attract enough customers to more than offset the loss of smokers who go elsewhere.
Nicole Vitola, a Borgata dealer and one of the leaders of the anti-smoking push, accused Local 54 of being the same as casino management.
“Instead of fighting for the health and safety of workers, Local 54 is battling in a court of law to allow casinos to keep poisoning their members with toxic secondhand smoke,” she said.
___
Follow Wayne Parry on X, formerly Twitter, at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC
veryGood! (7)
Related
- Small twin
- CNN political commentator Alice Stewart dies at 58
- Caitlin Clark back in action: How to watch Indiana Fever vs. Connecticut Sun on Monday
- Harrison Butker decries diversity, but he can thank Black QB Patrick Mahomes for his fame
- Federal Spending Freeze Could Have Widespread Impact on Environment, Emergency Management
- Helicopter carrying Iran’s president suffers a ‘hard landing,’ state TV says, and rescue is underway
- Preakness 2024 recap: Seize the Grey wins, denies Mystik Dan shot at Triple Crown
- Nordstrom Rack's Top 100 Deals Include Major Scores Up to 73% Off: Longchamp, Free People & More
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Caitlin Clark back in action: How to watch Indiana Fever vs. Connecticut Sun on Monday
Ranking
- Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie return for an 'Encore,' reminisce about 'The Simple Life'
- Slovak prime minister’s condition remains serious but prognosis positive after assassination bid
- A complete guide to the 33-car starting lineup for the 2024 Indianapolis 500
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs apologizes for assaulting Cassie Ventura in 2016 video: 'I'm disgusted'
- NHL in ASL returns, delivering American Sign Language analysis for Deaf community at Winter Classic
- Did you know Paul Skenes was an Air Force cadet? MLB phenom highlights academies' inconsistent policy
- Travis Kelce Cheekily Reveals How He's Changed Over the Past Year
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Mach 3
Recommendation
Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
The Israel-Hamas war is testing whether campuses are sacrosanct places for speech and protest
Simone Biles brings back (and lands) big twisting skills, a greater victory than any title
11 hurt after late-night gunfire breaks out in Savannah, Georgia
Moving abroad can be expensive: These 5 countries will 'pay' you to move there
Your Ultimate Guide on Which Crystals Are Best for Love, Finance, Career and Health
Fry's coupons from USA TODAY's coupons page can help you save on groceries
Scarlett Johansson, Rami Malek and More Stars You Probably Didn't Know Are a Twin