IN BRIEF
ATLANTIC CITY
Atlantic City cashiers reject joining union
Cashiers at Caesars Atlantic City casino rejected a bid to unionize.
The cashiers voted 77 to 42 Saturday to not join the United Auto Workers, the union said.
The UAW has been pushing hard to organize workers at all of Atlantic City’s 11 casinos. It has five organizing wins so far this year.
Last Saturday, full- and part-time card dealers voted 626-157 at the Tropicana Casino and Resort to unionize.
Dan Nita, general manager of Caesars, said he is “looking forward to working together with our cashiers to address their concerns.”
“We believe these election results illustrate the strength of the relationship between our team and our commitments to working together in addressing important issues such as improvements in our health care options and compensation,” Nita said.
DETROIT
UAW boss calls union vital to auto industry
United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said U.S. union members are “enthusiastic” and the labor movement remains vital even as Detroit’s carmakers press for health and wage concessions.
“Unions are needed more today than they were in the beginning,” Gettelfinger, 63, said Monday in an interview at a Labor Day parade in Detroit. The UAW had about 538,448 members last year, down from a 1979 peak of 1.5 million, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Gettelfinger, wearing a yellow UAW T-shirt and mingling among hundreds of union members, wouldn’t discuss the 2007 contract talks. U.S. automakers say they need to cut spending on benefits to return to profit in North America because of lower labor costs at Asian rivals.
The UAW’s collective bargaining agreements with General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC expire Sept. 14.
may seek to cut health-care bills for union retirees by creating union-run trust funds to pay for medical costs.
Similar trust funds are being established for union retirees at Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and bankrupt auto-parts maker Dana Corp. in Toledo, Ohio.DETROIT
