United Voice

In this issue:

1. Crown says no: it's time for action

2. What is involved in legally protected industrial action?

Crown says no: it's time for action

Yesterday, your Casino Union bargaining team filed an application with Fair Work Australia for a ballot to take legally protected industrial action.

Last week your bargaining team told Crown they had until COB Friday to increase their pay offer and resolve the table games classification issues.

Crown’s response was:

- NO to fair wage increases of  4.5% in 2010, 4.5% in 2011, and 4.5% in 2012.

- NO to resolving the major faults in the table games classification, which could see dealers thousands of dollars worse off a year.

- NO to continuing current three game dealers' choice of receiving HD training or gaining a 4th game, over the life of the new agreement.

Your bargaining team has now withdrawn the offer they put to Crown. All union proposals are back on the table.

So what did Crown offer to try and break the deadlock in bargaining?

Crown management has offered a mere 0.75% additional pay increase for the third year of the agreement — so, from 3.25% to 4%.

This would see an overall pay increase for the new agreement of 11%. That is 3.5% in 2010, 3.5% in 2011, and 4% in 2012.

Your bargaining team told Crown, long ago, it could not and would not accept an 11% pay offer. In meetings, Casino Union members said loud and clear that would not be good enough.

This pay offer is dependent on us accepting Crown’s table games classification structure in its entirety.  

It seems Crown are hellbent on trying to push through changes to table games; changes that could see dealers thousands of dollars worse off a year.
 
So how do Crown justify these low wages increases?

• by blaming local and global economic uncertainty;
  
  
• and Crown’s massive investment on capital works, mainly the refurbishment of the Mahogany Room.

All of this in the week they reported:

• $292 million profit in the 2009/2010 financial year.
  
  
• “VIPs turned over $40 billion, and VIP revenue was at an    all-time high, $585 million, up from $501 million last year.”
  
  
• “Non-gaming revenue from hotels and restaurants was also higher than last year at $483 million and includes revenue from Crown’s new Metropol Hotel.”
  (Lahey ‘High Rollers Help Crown Beat the Gaming Floor Blues’ Sydney Morning Herald 27 August 2010)

You might now be thinking Crown’s economy doesn’t sound that bad. If Crown staff are bringing in billions of dollars every year, where is the investment in us?

Thousands of union members have signed on to take action and are ready to vote YES! This is why your bargaining team has decided to file for protected action.

The next step is to to get the order from Fair Work Australia so the ballots can be sent out to members’ homes.

So get ready to vote YES FOR ACTION!

What is involved in legally protected industrial action?

Industrial action is a last resort — it is only necessary if an employer is stalling or refusing to put a fair deal on the table. This is where we currently are with negotiations.

Industrial action is legal — if you follow the right procedure, you can’t be harassed, discriminated against or have your job threatened if you participate or support industrial action.

Industrial action begins with a hearing at Fair Work Australia — yesterday, your bargaining team filed an application to take industrial action and they will attend a hearing this week. Once successful, ballot papers will be distributed to members’ homes and the voting will begin.

Industrial action can only happen after a proper union vote — conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission. Only members can vote!

Industrial action only involves union members — you cannot participate if you are not a member.