Burnaby casino wants to suspend workers' constitutional right to join a union

A Burnaby casino owned by Australian interests wants to suspend its workers' rights to join a union until February of next year.

Gateway Casino Inc. has applied to the B.C. Labour Relations Board (LRB) to extinguish the constitutional right to unionize for about 200 of the casino's 500 employees who haven't already voted on joining the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union.

BCGEU president Darryl Walker says it's the latest move in an aggressive campaign launched by the casino-B.C.'s second largest with annual revenues of $177 million-to try and stop its employees from unionizing to improve pay and working conditions.

Earlier this month about 70 Gateway dealer and slot machine supervisors voted to join BCGEU. Originally, they cast their ballots in July 2007. But legal wrangling by the company delayed the count of their vote for a year.

Meanwhile, yesterday the LRB dismissed another legal challenge by Gateway which means that a similar vote of 225 dealers and slot machine attendants to join BCGEU can now finally be counted-nine months after their ballots were cast in October 2007.

"We're hoping that cooler heads will prevail within Gateway's management ranks," says Walker. "Instead of creating conflict and animosity, we're asking that the company sit down with us to talk about ways to improve wages and make the casino a better workplace for staff."

Walker says that in unique circumstances the LRB can impose a ban on union signups for a specified period. He's confident that the board will turn down Gateway's bid.

The company says the "strain" resulting from all the legal proceedings it's involved in against its employees' unionization effort plus the opening of a new casino complex in the fall "dictates [that the suspension of the right to join a union] would not be unreasonable."

B.C.'s casino industry generates $1.3 billion in annual revenue and produces huge profits that are carved up by casino owners and the provincial government. But Walker says casino workers are poorly paid and work long hours under stressful conditions. Gateway wages start at $8.75/hour and top out for the most experienced supervisor at just over $16/hour plus tips.