Western Pennsylvania's trusted news source
Auto union boss urges New Jersey lawmakers to pass casino smoking ban | TribLIVE.com
Politics Election

Auto union boss urges New Jersey lawmakers to pass casino smoking ban

Associated Press
6857949_web1_6857949-1fa0c1c2f65548688ea14ceff9cf85de
AP
A gambler smokes while playing a slot machine at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City N.J.
6857949_web1_6857949-43e12e9721c046c3a56f5c330fec3ec3
AP
Elaine Rose, a frequent customer of Atlantic City N.J. casinos, holds a sign in support of a proposed smoking ban in the city’s casinos during a rally there on Sept. 22, 2022.
6857949_web1_6857949-c31978786429476e8506df5b17f5b0cb
AP
Casino workers and patrons opposed to smoking in the gambling halls demonstrate outside the Hard Rock casino in Atlantic City N.J. on Sept. 22, 2022.

ATLANTIC CITY — Shawn Fain, the international president of the United Auto Workers union who recently won large raises for his workers, is taking aim at a new target: New Jersey lawmakers who are delaying votes on a bill to ban smoking in Atlantic City’s casinos.

The head of the powerful union, which represents workers at three casinos here, is urging legislators to move the bill forward in a scheduled hearing Thursday, warning that the union will “monitor and track” their votes.

Many casino workers have been pushing for three years to close a loophole in the state’s public smoking law that specifically exempts casinos from a ban. Despite overwhelming bipartisan support from lawmakers, and a promise from the state’s Democratic governor to sign the measure, it has been bottled up in state government committees without a vote to move it forward.

The same state Senate committee that failed to vote on the bill last month is due to try again on Thursday. Fain’s letter to the state Senate and Assembly was timed to the upcoming hearing.

The casino industry opposes a ban, saying it will cost jobs and revenue. It has suggested creating enclosed smoking rooms, but has refused to divulge details of that plan.

“Thousands of UAW members work as table game dealers at the Caesars, Bally’s, and Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City, and are exposed on a daily basis to the toxic harms of secondhand smoking,” Fain wrote in a letter sent last week to lawmakers. “Patrons blow cigarette/tobacco smoke directly into their faces for eight hours, and due to the nature of their work, table dealers are unable to take their eyes away from the table, so they bear through the thick smoke that surrounds their workplace.”

Fain rejected smoking rooms as a solution, calling the suggestion “preposterous,” and said it will oppose any amendment allowing anything less than a total ban on smoking in the casinos.

Currently, smoking is allowed on 25% of the casino floor. But those spaces are not contiguous, and are scattered widely throughout the premises.

At a Nov. 30 hearing in the state Senate, several lawmakers said they are willing to consider smoking rooms as a compromise.

The Casino Association of New Jersey did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Nor did state Sen. Joseph Vitale, chairman of the committee that will conduct this week’s hearing.

Chris Moyer, a spokesperson for the Atlantic City casino workers who want a smoking ban, said similar movements are under way in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Kansas, Michigan and Nevada, and noted Connecticut’s casinos are already smoke-free. Shreveport, Louisiana ended a smoking ban in its casinos in June.

“Workers should leave work in the same condition they arrived,” Fain wrote. “Union. Non-union. Factory, office, casino, or any workplace in between, worker safety must be the #1 goal of every employer and worker throughout the state.”

Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.

Get Ad-Free >

Categories: News | Politics Election | U.S./World
Content you may have missed