The employees of one of Canada’s biggest casinos, the Casino Rama Resort, gave their approval on the new 3-year contracts that resulted from the long period of negotiations that took place last week. The support of these new deals is going to ratify the tentative agreement that Gateway Casinos and Entertainment proposed, as the employees are now looking forward to an increase in wages that is equal ten percent, during the upcoming three years.
The discussions and the heated negotiations lasted for over a month, but the workers were finally able to express their happiness with the results of the picketing action. Unifor Local 1019 was the Labour-union that led the Contract negotiations and aimed to protect the rights of the employees of the Rama Casino by working with them during every step of the way, to enhance their working benefits and conditions.
The last part of the conversations took the Union and Gateway casino more than eighteen hours to work out the fine print and the final details for the new employee contracts, regardless of the exhaustion that the attendance felt. They then explained the results of the discussions to the staff members before they can approve it. After that explanation, they had to take a vote, whether to accept the new conditions or start the entire process all over again.
The workers of the casino and their counterparts in the Rama hotel had the chance to inspect the agreement and check its pros and cons before they give their vote. All of that took place during the dedicated gathering in the hotel premises. The staff had an entire day to know about the new proposed contracts and knew how these new changes are going to benefit them. More than 1400 employees that work full time were interested in understanding how their lives are going to change throughout the upcoming years, according to the terms of the new deal.
After they got briefed and understood the terms of the new deal, the voting took place. More than 72% of the total attendance agreed that the proposed and new conditions represented a great improvement when compared to the existing ones. It is going to allow the new contracts to become active across the hotel and gaming parts of the premises.
The Uniform Local 1019 stated that the rights of the workers are safe and protected, at all times during the process. They added that the demands of the workers were in mind upon drawing up the new proposals. The new deal is going to cover the upcoming few years of casino and hotel operations until 2021, and it is going to progressively increase the wages of the workers until more new contracts appear in the future. The staff is going to gain an increase of more than ten percent over their current salaries during this, along with significant enhancements in their pension plans.
Bonnie Trelane is a professional author with a background in igaming and modeling. Bonnie plays Blackjack at many of the prominent casinos in the U.S. and has a fondness for Caesars owned casinos.