Michigan City, IN – Table games dealers and dual rate table games dealers at Blue Chip Casino Hotel Spa voted to join Teamsters Local 135 in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election held October 16 and 17. The final tally was 30 votes for the union and 18 against. Two challenged ballots were not enough to affect the outcome.

This marks the second time this year that Blue Chip workers have voted to become Teamsters. In late July, the casino's slot attendants and dual rate slot attendants won their own NLRB election by a landslide of 18 to 2, despite a union-busting campaign by management. They began bargaining for a first contract with Blue Chip in late summer, and the dealers now plan to join them at the table. Once they win a contract, Blue Chip will be the first Boyd Gaming property in the country with a Teamsters contract.

The dealers organized for many of the same reasons as the slot attendants. Their issues include wages, health insurance, paid time off, management harassment and racial discrimination.

“Every worker deserves a voice, respect, and the power to make their workplace better,” said Dustin Roach, president of Teamsters Local 135, after the election. “These workers stood together and demanded exactly that. We're proud to welcome them into Local 135, and we're ready to fight alongside them for the contract they deserve.”

Boyd Gaming goes all-in on union-busting, loses again

After its blowout loss in the slot attendants' election, Boyd Gaming came at the table games workers even harder. Management ran one-on-one meetings, small group meetings, and seemingly mandatory captive audience meetings. It also blanketed common areas in the back-of-house with anti-union propaganda posters.

Management also tried a sympathy play. The general manager made an emotional appeal to the dealers, saying he took their organizing personally and begging them to give management another chance. This is a common union-busting tactic meant to make workers feel bad for demanding a decent contract for their labor.

The company also tried to scare workers with misinformation about union dues, strikes, and the supposed riskiness of the collective bargaining process. The dues scare was especially dishonest. In the Teamsters, workers do not pay any dues until they have voted by majority to ratify a first contract.

To run the campaign, Blue Chip brought in outside anti-union consultants. Filings with the U.S. Department of Labor name Rampart Labor Solutions, CRS Labor Relations Solutions, and RoadWarrior Productions. RoadWarrior, run by Florida consultant Russ Brown, is one of the most active union-busting firms in the country. Amazon has paid RoadWarrior $3800 a day per consultant to fight organizing drives from North Carolina to Nevada. Worker advocacy group LaborLab found that RoadWarrior held back federally required disclosures of its pay at one Amazon warehouse until after the election. The firm has also been linked to the right-wing Heritage Foundation.

All of that money couldn't beat the dealers and dual rates' organizing committee. The committee members met with coworkers regularly to keep them updated and to answer questions. Every time the consultants spread a lie, the committee was there with the truth.

With two Teamster units now at Blue Chip, workers across the casino floor are building strength together. The slot attendants are already at the table, and the dealers will soon elect their own bargaining committee and begin drafting contract proposals.

Their message to Boyd Gaming is clear: Blue Chip workers have made their choice twice, and it's time for the company to respect it and bargain a fair contract.

#MichiganCityIN #IN #Labor #BlueChipCasino #Teamsters

Michigan City, IN – More than 200 people rallied outside city hall on Michigan Boulevard on October 17 as part of the national No Kings day of action called against the Trump administration.

Volunteers and community groups organized the protest, which was one of hundreds held across the country on Saturday. The size of the crowd stood out in an Indiana city with a population of just 32,000.

Many protesters made their own signs. Some of the slogans included, “Workers over billionaires” and “ICE murders,” denouncing the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants. With the midterm elections just weeks away, other protesters carried signs reading, “Vote in numbers too big to manipulate.”

Saturday’s rally showed that opposition to Trump’s agenda is not confined to Indiana’s big cities or college towns. People in smaller industrial towns like Michigan City are also taking to the streets to fight back.

#MichiganCityIN #IN #PeoplesStruggles #Trump #NoKings

Michigan City, IN – Slot attendants and dual-rate slot attendants at Blue Chip Casino Hotel Spa voted overwhelmingly to unionize with Teamsters Local 135 in an NLRB election held July 30 and 31. 18 workers voted yes, only two voted no, and one ballot was challenged, equating to a 90% landslide for the union. Every eligible voter cast a ballot.

The outstanding victory caps off more than a month of organizing that began June 23, when slot attendants marched on the boss and delivered a union recognition letter to General Manager JC Rieger. After Blue Chip refused voluntary recognition, Teamsters Local 135 filed for an NLRB election that same day.

In the weeks between the march and the vote, Boyd Gaming, which owns Blue Chip, mounted an aggressive campaign to defeat the union. They delayed pre-scheduled annual raises earned by the slot attendants and dual rates, citing the impending NLRB election. At the same time, they gave sizable raises to the other non-union departments in hopes of demoralizing the workers.

The company brought in a union-avoidance consulting firm it has yet to disclose to the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), as federal law requires. Workers say at least three consultants worked the floor, including two who went by the names “Louisa” and “Charlie.” Union-busting consultants regularly lie about their real names to obscure their identities and avoid accountability for their shameful activities. Blue Chip must, by law, disclose their real identities to the OLMS.

The consultants pulled slot attendants into repeated one-on-one and small-group meetings to pressure them into voting no. Management sent anti-union letters to workers' homes, papered break rooms and back-of-house areas with misleading propaganda, and bombarded workers' phones with text messages. Boyd Gaming even enlisted employees from a separate, non-union department to lobby slot attendants against the union.

None of it worked. Union organizers and slot attendants said that management appeared visibly shaken by the result of the vote when the NLRB agent read out the count on the afternoon of July 31.

Blue Chip Teamsters will now move to elect their bargaining committee and begin drafting contract proposals. Teamsters Local 135 conducts open bargaining, meaning any union member can sit in on negotiations with the company, a practice the local uses to keep rank-and-file workers directly involved and organized throughout the fight for a first contract.

The Blue Chip win is part of a broader surge in casino organizing by the Teamsters, who have organized hundreds of new casino workers over the past year, including table games dealers in Indiana and Virginia. The union now represents more than 6000 casino workers nationwide.

#MichiganCityIN #IN #Labor #Election #Casino #Feature

Michigan City, IN – Slot attendants at Blue Chip Casino Hotel Spa marched on management Tuesday, June 23, to demand voluntary recognition of their union with Teamsters Local 135.

Joined by Teamsters from Locals 135, 364 and 142, approximately 15 slot attendants and supporters marched through the casino before presenting a union recognition letter to General Manager JC Rieger on the gaming floor. The letter was read aloud before being handed to Rieger, who accepted the demand letter but offered no response.

The letter warned Blue Chip management to refrain from union-busting, stating “that should you or any other Company Representative make any unilateral changes to the employees’ terms and conditions of employment or take any type of retaliatory action against employees” the local union would “enforce these employees’ rights to the fullest extent of the law.”

As the delegation concluded, workers filled the casino with chants of “Who are we? Teamsters!”

Later that day, Teamsters Local 135 filed a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board. A pre-election hearing has been scheduled for July 2.

The bargaining unit includes slot attendants and dual-rate slot attendants, a majority of whom have signed authorization cards for representation with the Teamsters. Workers say they are organizing in response to declining wages, chronic understaffing, unjust discipline, a punitive attendance policy, and a paid time off system that often leaves employees waiting without timely approval or denial of their requests.

Workers also point to the consolidation of the guest service representative position into the slot attendant classification without any corresponding increase in pay, leaving attendants responsible for additional duties while earning the same wages.

One of the central issues in the campaign is the decline in tip income for slot attendants. Although attendants receive an hourly wage, the most significant portion of their earnings comes from pooled tips, or tokes, left by players receiving hand-paid jackpots. Recent changes to the federal W-2G reporting threshold increased the amount that triggers a mandatory hand-pay from $1200 to $2000, and many casinos have adjusted their slot machines accordingly. Workers say fewer hand-pays means fewer opportunities to earn tips, resulting in a sharp decline in take-home pay even as their workload has increased.

Teamsters Local 135 is also seeking contractual protection for tipped casino employees elsewhere in Indiana, including guaranteed toke rates for slot attendants and table games dealers during ongoing contract negotiations at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

The recognition campaign at Blue Chip marks the latest casino organizing effort by Teamsters Local 135, as gaming workers across Indiana continue pushing for a greater voice on the job and contracts that address wages, staffing, and working conditions.

#MichiganCityIN #IN #Labor #Teamsters #Casino #IBT135 #Feature