The Tropicana is one of the biggest casinos in Atlantic City, and it’s been the scene of massive layoffs. And Local 54, the local (pardon the pun) branch of the UNITE-HERE union, isn’t too happy about it. From the AC Press:
Tropicana Casino and Resort’s wholesale layoffs under its new owner have decimated the casino and left too few workers to even keep the bathrooms clean and properly operate other parts of one of Atlantic City’s biggest gaming properties, according to a scathing union report.
UNITE-HERE issued the report Monday to several hundred investors of the Columbia Sussex Corp. affiliate that has cut almost 900 jobs at the casino, or 20 percent of its work force, since assuming ownership in January. The report lent numbers to Local 54 President Robert McDevitt’s months of public criticism of the company and the union’s plan to oppose its operating license when it comes up for renewal next month.
“You have one of the larger properties in the city, Tropicana, trying to run themselves as if they were like a Kmart version of a casino, when what we really need is Nordstrom. … this is just the first step in engaging Columbia Sussex on their business practices,” McDevitt said.
According to the report:
?Tropicana Casino and Resort was already understaffed relative to its industry peers at the time of the takeover, with the second lowest ratio of employees to guestrooms. That ratio, 2.12, had fallen to 1.70 by the end of September – when the industry average was 3.05.
?Tropicana’s layoffs of 896 employees from January through September came on the heels of other staff reductions in 2006, totaling the loss of 1,531 jobs in 21 months. Tropicana was the third largest casino employer when Columbia Sussex bought it from Aztar Corp., but it is now tied with Harrah’s Atlantic City as the fifth largest, although it has more rooms than any other casino in Atlantic City, the third highest number of table games and slot machines, and the third largest casino floor.
?The staff responsible for keeping public and private areas clean has shrunk from 200 at the end of 2006 to 72 in June. Tropicana has 2,045 square feet of casino floor space per public area attendant, or twice the industry average.
?For the first half of 2007, Tropicana accounted for 22 percent of city health inspection reports for all casinos rated “unsatisfactory” or “conditionally satisfactory,” although it accounts for only 10 percent of total casino floor space.
?Company officials have partially attributed revenue declines in earlier quarters to casino floor construction disruption, but Casino Control Commission monthly reports on gaming tables and slot machines in operation do not reflect the company’s claims. The company has claimed at various times that hundreds of games were closed during renovation.
?In stating that previous owner Aztar had maintained some of the most inflated payroll ratios in the industry, Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III compared Tropicana with Harrah’s in a June guest column in The Press of Atlantic City. He said that both companies generated the same amount of revenue, but Harrah’s employed 2,200 fewer people. But from January 2006 to September 2007, Harrah’s number of employees had increased 23 percent, while Tropicana’s had dropped 30 percent.
Technically, Columbia Sussex hasn’t decimated the Trop: they’ve double-decimated. My inner pedant is screaming to be let out, so here goes:
Decimation actually is the process of killing one-tenth of a population. The Romans did it, so it’s no surprise that there was an element of chance: each cohort of ten drew lots to see who the unlucky winner was–that poor sap then got killed.
Most people use the term today to refer to general destruction. Sometimes, though, people get it right: Russell T. Davies nailed it in The Sound of Drums, which was a pleasant surprise.
On a related tangent, I’ll take this opportunity to officially register my delight with Doctor who. I really liked the way Series 3 of Doctor Who ended. Around the middle of the season the episodes weren’t really clicking with me–I just didn’t think the Dalek episodes made a lot of sense. 42 was OK and really more of a character development episode than anything else. But the last six shows–from Human Nature to Last of the Time Lords–might be the best run of six Doctor Who stories I’ve ever seen. I’m as much of a mark for Hinchcliffe/Holmes as anyone, and I’d put these right up there with the best of that era. Human Nature was, for me, a turning point: I’d gotten a bit blase about watching the show, which seemed predictable. But during the entire week that I had to wait between Human Nature and Family of Blood, I really had no idea what to expect. This was a totally new idea and a completely different kind of story-telling, yet more in tune with the spirit of the original series than a generic Cyberman or Dalek rehash.
By the same token, I was iffy about them bringing back the Master, but the last three stories really worked well–again, not like anything I’d seen before. And even though the Doctor was only in Blink for 5 minutes, the story was brilliant and scary, and probably the one I’d show to someone who’d never seen the show before but was curious about it. I can’t wait to see Series Four.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, back to the Trop. He’s something it doesn’t say in the article. Between Jan. 1 and Sept 1, your number of employees should increase, like Harrah’s did, because of seasonal workers. Even keeping the numbers steady would amount to making cuts. So a decline is really a big deal.
Is anyone from K-Mart going to protest this?