AB - Casino strike drags on
Sides ‘canyons apart’
By MAX MAUDIE, EDMONTON SUN, Mon, December 11, 2006
After three months of picketing, there’s no end in sight for the strike at the Palace Casino, says a union leader.
“There will be no settling,” said United Food and Commercial Workers Union president Doug O’Halloran. “We’re canyons apart.”
Workers walked off the job Sept. 9 at the casino, located in West Edmonton Mall.
Workers wanted a 5% per year increase for three years and the right to take sick days.
The union shot down the most recent offer the casino made a couple of weeks ago, said O’Halloran.
He said employees were offered a lump sum payment of 3% the first year, and a 14% pay increase over the next three years.
O’Halloran said the union is determined to get paid sick days for its members.
But Casino spokesman Brian Hetherington said workers were offered a 20% increase over four years.
“When the strike started, Palace Casino employees where the highest paid in northern Alberta,” said Hetherington.
The latest deal the casino offered would have maintained that position, he added.
The union and the provincial NDP last week accused Palace of allowing minors to gamble at the casino, and patrons to carry liquor outside the casino.
Hetherington categorically denied the allegations.
He also took issue with the union and NDP claim that the union is trying to negotiate a first contract, saying they’ve had collective agreements with the casino in the past, but with another union that merged with the UFCW in 2003.
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