The way many casino union workers see it, the Tropicana Casino and Resort has been breaking the law since February by refusing to bargain in good faith and by unilaterally terminating employee pension plans.
So the casino workers plan to break the law, too.
Nearly 50 members of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE casino workers union, including its president, Bob McDevitt, plan to sit down in the street Friday evening and block traffic from entering the Tropicana. They expect to be arrested immediately and already have discussed their plans with the Atlantic City Police Department.
"Since their management won't follow the law, we're willing to take extreme measures," McDevitt said. "We're willing to take the cuffs."
Following a rally on the Boardwalk at 5 p.m., the union members plan to march along the side of the casino onto Pacific Avenue and sit down in the roadway, blocking the main entrance to the casino-hotel. McDevitt said officers will direct the union members to leave the roadway, and the workers will refuse, leading officers to arrest them.
Once the union members are placed under arrest, they will cooperate with officers and leave the roadway under their own power without forcing officers to drag or carry them away, McDevitt said.
"We plan for this to be peaceful and nonviolent," he said.
Tropicana president Tony Rodio said the casino has developed contingency plans with Atlantic City police and the casino's own security staff to direct patrons to alternate entrances to the casino or its parking garage, depending on where the union chooses to block traffic. He also said he expects police to quickly disperse the protest.
"This is going to be about 10 minutes of street theater," he said, predicting it would have "no effect at all" on the Tropicana's operations Friday night.
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The casino has not signed a contract with the union since their last pact expired in September. The main sticking point is the Tropicana's cancellation of employee pensions in favor of direct cash payments.
The dispute began earlier this year when the Tropicana declared an impasse in contract talks with the union.
Rodio said the union "has grossly distorted the issue."
"The pension plan they want us to participate in is grossly underfunded and has been egregiously mismanaged," he said. "They want us to bail them out and at the same time they're drastically cutting our employees' retirement benefits because this pension fund is in critical status. We're providing a better and safer plan. This whole circus is being orchestrated by union leaders to protect their own turf."
Rodio has previously said that because billionaire Carl Icahn bought the casino at a bankruptcy sale, he does not have to assume future liabilities for the Tropicana's portion of a pension fund Rodio says is underfunded by at least $1.3 billion.
Instead of sending payments to a national pension fund, the casino instead will contribute the $1.77 per hour per employee that otherwise would have gone into the pension fund to an employee's 401(k) plan, or to a lump-sum cash payment, at the discretion of each employee.
The dispute is rapidly shaping up as a test of wills between the casino and the powerful union, which brought the resort to its knees with a 2004 strike.
The Tropicana and Revel, which opened in April, are the only two of Atlantic City's 12 casinos that do not have current contracts with Local 54.
Until now, both sides had been working hard to achieve labor peace, saying that a strike would cause far greater damage now than it did seven years ago, when Atlantic City's revenues were near their height. During the past five years, Atlantic City's casino revenues have fallen from $5.2 billion to $3.3 billion last year. Thousands of jobs have disappeared as well.
McDevitt says the demonstration is just the first step in what he promises will be an escalating campaign of pressure against the Tropicana if the contract impasse continues.
"This is the first; it will not be the last," he said. "We're going to keep ratcheting things up until they agree to a fair contract and save the pensions our employees worked so hard for."
