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By Bob Hennelly 

For years, with a surreal break during the pandemic, Atlantic City’s casino workers have been forced to endure life-threatening secondhand smoke because New Jersey’s Democratic machine, the casino operators, and the largest union representing casino workers were all worried enforcing the state’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act would hurt business.

A significant portion of the Atlantic City casino workforce is not unionized, and it was anti-smoking activists from that cohort, who in the midst of COVID, decided to fight the unholy power alliance that put their health at risk. In the last few years, CEASE — Casino Employees Against Smoking’s Effects — found common cause with the United Auto Workers, which has a presence in Atlantic City.

This week, the UAW and CEASE filed a lawsuit against Governor Phil Murphy and Acting NJ Health Commissioner Dr. Kaitlin Baston alleging they have violated workers’ constitutional rights by exempting casinos from New Jersey’s Smoke-Free Air Act, which has prohibited smoking in indoor workplaces since 2006.

According to filings, the State of New Jersey “knowingly” forced “employees to work in toxic conditions” that resulted in “life-threatening illness and death,” reported the New York Times. 

The suit filed in State Superior Court in Mercer County follows years of unsuccessful lobbying of the state legislature to end the exemption. The controversy pits the UAW, which represents Atlantic City casino workers at three casinos, against UNITE Here Local 54, which represents over 10,000, and opposes lifting the exemption.

“Usually when we come up here, we are asking somebody to listen to us; we are begging for somebody to have mercy on us; we are pleading for a little humanity —but not today,” proclaimed Lamont White, a dealer at the Borgata casino since 1985. “Today, we get off our knees and stand up! We offered them the carrot — and now they get the stick!

UAW President Shawn Fain delivered remarks remotely at a boisterous rally on the Mercer County Court House steps, saying the union stepped up because Atlantic City casino workers are being left out in the cold when it comes to the Smoke-Free Act.

“This legislation was supposed to protect everyone from the dangers of second hand smoke — but somehow our casino workers have been asked to roll the dice, all in the name of corporate greed,” Fain said. “Imagine working day in and day out surrounded by smoke knowing it's affecting your health. Every worker deserves a safe and healthy workplace. It is a basic human right.” 

CEASE is made up of casino workers from both union and non-union workplaces with chapters in Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Virginia, Louisiana, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. 

Nancy Erika Smith is the employment attorney representing the UAW and CEASE.

“We are taking the fight out of the backroom and into the courtroom,” Smith told the crowd of  well over a hundred. “The very first thing in the New Jersey Constitution since 1776 is you all have the right to safety, not everybody but you. The other thing the Constitution says — and it’s very relevant here — the legislature can’t pass special laws that exclude some people and favors corporations. The reason for that is because the legislature is subject to pressure like backroom pacts, dark money, campaign contributions. the tobacco lobby and the casino lobby.”

Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who is running for the U.S. Senate and recently got the UAW’s endorsement in the June primary, was on hand to show support for the anti-smoking drive.

“Action is the only way you can make change,” Kim told the crowd. “You cannot assume change. Change is not just going to happen; it does not happen on its own. You are making it happen. So, action today is so important. But what I ask you is what are you doing tomorrow? What are you doing next week? How do we sustain this action? The only way you can sustain this action is through solidarity.”

UNITE HERE Local 54 has not responded to requests for comment on this story.  

A few days before the UAW lawsuit was filed, however, Local 54 President DeCaprio released the latest data from the Division of Gaming Enforcement indicating that while sports betting and online gaming were on the upswing, Atlantic City’s nine casinos saw a 1.6 percent decline year over year. Only three of the casinos have seen more in-person gamblers than they did before COVID-19 hit in 2020.

“Alarm bells should be ringing in Atlantic City and in Trenton as to both the short-term and long-term negative economic trends,” DeCaprio said in a statement. “Representatives in the New Jersey Legislature must understand the perilous economic situation at hand for my members, and indeed all workers in Atlantic City.”

Beverly Quinn, president of UAW Local 8888, is a blackjack dealer at the Tropicana. She told Work-Bites the COVID pandemic was the turning point for casino workers.

“It brought awareness that people can stop and walk out to the boardwalk and smoke a cigarette and for two years we had no smoking in the casino and it really made us say we don’t have to put up with this,” Quinn said. “We have rights like every other person in New Jersey.” 

Nicole Vitola is a non-union dealer at Borgata, and was one of the original members of CEASE that pressed for three years to try and get the legislature to lift the smoking exemption.

“With COVID, enough was enough — we had been suppressed for so long. I dealt with two pregnancies with smoke in my face — cigar smoke in the face,” Vitola told Work-Bites. “I was six months pregnant working  with high-rollers and they allowed cigar smokers in the same small rooms with these high-rollers, and I still cry today when I think of how I put my kids in that situation because I needed benefits.”

UAW Region 9 Director Daniel Vicente  told Work-Bites that the union “tried doing it the nice way in Trenton behind closed doors.”

“But politicians in the state talk out of both sides of their mouth,” he said. “They promise us things behind closed doors, and then when the vote comes, they flake out. And it’s happened over and over again. So, we are taking the fight out of the legislature, and into the judiciary.” 

Vicente believes that rank and file UNITE HERE Local 54 members support ending smoking in New Jersey’s casinos. “There are rank and file UNITE 54 members right here today that work on the casino floor,” Vicente said. “They are part of CEASE. What I am saying is the same thing I say to the politicians and the executives — we will take the fight to anybody. I don’t care if it's other trade unionists.n If you are standing in the way of health and safety — you’re violating the very fundamental principles of what a union is supposed to be fighting for.”