Dealers: 1, Steve Wynn: 0

Over the weekend the dealers at Wynn Las Vegas voted to unionize, by a fairly significant margin. (444-149)

Now this is just the first step in the organization process, as the Union still has a long way to go before it actually has a contract. Other Strip casinos have passed similar measures, but only one, the lowly Frontier, has actually had a Union contract put in place.

As we have written about previously, this issue stems from Wynn’s practice of including the floor supervisors (pit bosses) in the dealers tip pool, effectively taking money from the dealers, and giving it to their superiors.

Last week, Steve Wynn made a last ditch effort to plead his case to the dealers. Saying he made ‘a mistake’ when implementing the policy and urging a ‘no’ vote during a meeting with the dealers.

From that meeting:

"I did not realize the extent of the mistake I had made until yesterday," Wynn said, explaining his talk with a longtime employee who felt betrayed. "I was more focused on the right thing I did for the bosses, than the wrong thing I did to the dealers."

Fascinating audio of this impassioned speech can be found at TwoWayHardThree.com:
http://media.ratevegas.com/wynn_union_apology.mp3

It’s interesting to listen to Wynn, as he seems to apologize for the WAY he implemented the policy, if not for the policy itself. Now he was not allowed to make promises, due to the pending vote, but it wasn’t clear if he was insinuating that he’d revoke the tip-sharing policy if the union vote fell through or not.

Our extremely uneducated guess would be that this all falls apart during contract negotiations. These are dealers at arguable the nicest casino in the world, and apparently make quite a bit of money, even before the tip-sharing. Our guess is that the union might be able to get the tip-sharing reversed, but in the end, the dealers would be worse off than before the vote to unionize. Either way though, this will be good theater.

Steve Wynn + Labor Unrest = Huge Story. So we will follow this very closely, and are anxious to see what the atmosphere is like at Wynn Las Vegas during our stay there in July.


Wynn Dealers Vote to Unionize

Dealers of the World Unite!

Steve Wynn vs. His Own Dealers