Trump Plaza Dealers Go Union

My friend Katie blew into town last Tuesday. She is a chemistry teacher at Sacramento State and she was enjoying a portion of her spring break in Las Vegas. On Wendesday we decided to have lunch at the Top of the World restaurant in the Stratosphere tower. I had eaten dinner there maybe 8-9 years ago. The view was just as I remembered it except that this time it was daylight.
We both sprung for the Kobe burger.....well done. I like my steak medium at most but when I eat a burger it has to be cooked.
I asked the waitress if the Kobe was domestic. I know that real Kobe is imported from Japan but I also have heard that a lot of places serve domestic "Kobe Style" beef. She assured us that it was indeed real, imported Kobe. The burger was delivered to the table charred on the outside and RED RED RED on the inside.
We both at it anyway. lol
It did have a distinctive taste but I'm not sure if the taste was due to the charred exterior or due to the type of beef. I don't think I'll be ordering any more $16 Kobe burgers any time soon.

Despite that it was a nice way to spend an hour or two as we rotated high above the Las Vegas Valley.

****

The qualifying rules for the River King $1,000,000 free roll have been modified. Starting last Monday you can earn double hours by playing on Monday or Tuesday. I assume that this promotion within a promotion will last until the qualifying period ends.


On Tuesday I decided that I wanted a beer when I finished work. Most of the waitresses would have just brought me a beer but you are really supposed to be actively playing in order to order drinks. Whatever. I sat in a $2-4 limit game and anxiously awaited the opportunity to order a Sunset Wheat. I'm not sure why I mostly drink the bland ol' Miller Lite. Occasionally I like a "real" beer. The Palms had recently stopped serving both Sierra Nevada and Blue Moon beer. Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat is the replacement. I'm told that the Maloof's recently acquired a large stake in the Miller distributorship here in Las Vegas and since Leinenkugel's is a wholly owned subsidiary of Miller Brewing that explains the introduction of Sunset Wheat.
In any case I really like it. And I really wanted one. Just one.
Honestly, it took me about 70 minutes to get the damned thing.
During the wait I managed to suck out and flop some monsters a few times. One of the suck out winners came in the form of a diamond flush(which gave me an entry and a chance to win $100). After that suck out the loosing player made the comment that he plays there all the time and tips me. I guess a dealer isn't supposed to ever win a hand.
So what? I had to bite my tongue. About an hour earlier I had spent a down on that very table. I had in fact pushed three pots to said player. Said player neglected to toss me a bone all three times.
When the beer finally came I quickly drained it and cashed out a small winner.
The diamond entry was a winner and I picked up the cash on Wednesday.

The dealers at Trump Plaza have joined their neighbors at Caesars Atlantic City by voting for UAW representation. The dealers at Trump Marina have filed a petition asking for their opportunity to vote also. The dominos are falling in Atlantic City. Will the Las Vegas dealers follow suit?

Here is an opinion written by a lady who goes by the name HarrahsHell on the dealers lounge forum. (sorry about the formatting....I copied and pasted and I'm too lazy to fix it right now)

So just as an example, I'm going to explain the two Nevada casino jobs I
had where one was union and one was not and the differences in the two IDENTICAL
positions I had with each.When I sold my bar in Florida and moved to Nevada in
1996 I first moved to Reno (WHAT was I THINKING?!) Reno was NON-UNION!I worked 2
jobs in cocktails. Each paid $5.15 an hour. You NEVER got a raise. There were
bartenders who had been there for 20 years and they were STILL making minimum
wage.From 9-5, daily I worked at the Atlantis Casino serving drinks.My paystub
would show my 40 hours at minimum wage and on each bi-weekly check there was a
deduction of $50+ for health insurance. This was health insurance I never once
used because it was CRAP and the deductable was $5,000 or something. Basically I
had it just in case I ever got hit by a mack truck. It didn't include vision or
dental either. I think the most I ever received on my paychecks there was maybe
$250.We didn't recieve holiday pay. We weren't allowed over-time.And if for some
reason your pay was "accidently" short one period, good luck in ever seeing that
money again.Vacation requests weren't confirmed until about 2 days beforehand so
you couldn't really buy airfare, etc. The boss would always say something like,
"We're kind of short-handed right now so we'll just have to wait and see." Are
you KIDDING ME????Furthermore, the casino owner was so cheap he fired all the
porters and insisted that the cocktail servers carry a nasty-ass rag on their
tray at all times to clean their areas (slot machines) and worst of all, we had
to keep the glass ashtrays beside each machine spotless at all times. That meant
that every time we'd take a round of drink orders we'd come back with about 10
ashtrays on our tray along with empty glassware. As we called our order to the
bartender we would have to wash each ashtray BY HAND using nothing but water and
paper towels. THEN!!!!!!! We had to garnish the drinks we had just served! I
guess the health department was paid to look the other way.I want you to
understand how serious this is because a union, ANY union, would never stand for
any of this.As we would deliver the drinks we'd be picking up more filthy
ashtrays so YOUR Corona might actually be touching filthy ashtrays before I
handed it to you.If there were coin wrappers on the ground (pre-TITO) we had to
set our tray down, bend to our knees and pick up the trash on the floor and then
continue serving drinks.Our uniforms were the exact same as the ones they wear
at Orleans and we were required to wear 2 inch heels. On more than one occasion
a girl's tips were stolen or a drink taken off the tray as she was crawling on
the floor, looking like a slut, picking up trash. What if someone had flung some
date-rape drugs into the drinks when the server was occupied with trash instead
of attending to her customers?My night-time job at the Reno Flamingo was much
nicer because of management but it was STILL non-union so you STILL only got
paid $5.15/hour and you STILL had to wear 2 inch heeled shoes.Four years ago I
moved here and my job at Flamingo LV was union. My starting pay for cocktails
was $10.69 hour so my pay doubled just by moving here.You must average (I THINK,
not sure) 38 hours a week for the first 3 months to begin insurance coverage.
Once you have qualified for insurance you only have to average 28 hours a week
to KEEP your FULLY PAID, GOOD INSURANCE THAT COVERS VISION AND DENTAL!Therefore
my paycheck stubs HERE would look like this:40 hours x 10.69/hour, and on every
OTHER check (once a month) my union dues of $34 would be deducted.The union told
the casinos to shove 2 inch heels up their ass and that we could wear just about
any kind we wanted as long as they were black.The first time I carried ash trays
on my tray here and started to wash them (out of habit, I guess) the girls all
looked at me like I was insane. The first time I bent down to pick up trash,
ditto.So basically with the union I was making more than DOUBLE what I made
non-union PLUS I had an extra $100/month that wasn't being stolen from me for
"health insurance" because I had FREE HEALTH INSURANCE with the union. I got all
of that for $34 a month in union dues.Now do YOU think it's worth
it?????Honestly! Think about this. Isn't it worth $34-$40 a month (that's ONE
dollar a day, people!) to have free health insurance with NO deductables, have
your wages shoot UP from $6.15/hr to God-knows-what, know that if you go to work
and Wynn is in one of his pissy moods and screams, "YOU'RE FIRED!", all you have
to say is, "We'll see about that."Then you contact one of the union employee
reps (there are usually 2 or 3 on duty at any given time of day or night) and
RIGHT THEN the matter is settled.If Wynn STILL acts like an ass the union rep
picks up the phone and NOW some higher-up from the local union office comes
flying into WLV like a bat out of hell to protect you.If worse comes to worse
you might still be sent home for the remainder of your shift but you can bet by
the next day Wynn has been hammered to death by the union and their lawyers and
unless you've killed some one or stolen money you've still got your job,
including the pay you were forced to give up when you clocked out the night
before.The union is NOT going to stand for tokes being counted without SOMEONE
from your department witnessing the amount. And it is CERTAINLY not going to
stand for the hostile work environment that you all are working in right now.I
have seen MANAGERS fired if something inappropriate was said to a union
employee. The employee still held his job afterwards.Tonight is Saturday. The
way it's currently set up in the count room each of you could EASILY be shorted
$40 tonight ALONE on your tokes. That's your month's "dues" right there!You've
probably already paid a year's worth of dues since this whole thing began- you
just have no way of knowing.I'd pay the $40 a month just for the piece of mind
in being able to walk into work knowing you won't be harrassed by any
managers!And no, I'm not working for nor have ANY intention of ever working for
a union.I just think you should realize how different your lives would be than
they are right now.Now there IS one con but thank God the union has procedures
in place if this should happen to you.Union "shop stewards" are basically Wynn
employees who have agreed to represent the union while they are at work.There is
usually one from each department on each shift.If Wynn or his management blows
up and hauls you into the office the "shop steward" is the person who has taken
courses and been given direction by the union on how to handle circumstances and
will be the one called off the floor to accompany you to the office so you'll
have a witness to back you.Like any people, some of these shop stewards can be
idiots and not know how to handle the situation.BUT!!!!!! If that happens then
all you do is go ahead and clock out and go to the union's main office the next
day and file a grievance and then THEY handle it. You still won't have lost your
job, it just might take a day longer to get it back.The situation at Wynn CAN
get worse! He can get even crazier than he is now and act like that nut I worked
for in Reno. For God's sake, get a UNION in there so you don't have to go
through the kind of crap I went through.

HH