Before the pandemic, about 26,000 people were working in the casino industry. “They did restrict some of their operations, so they might have opened only two key restaurants instead of their full complement of restaurants.”Įighteen years later, casinos are having a hard time filling available jobs. “They had management employees, nonunion employees, and union employees that cross the picket line that continued to run the properties,” she noted. 1, 2004, when nearly 10,000 hotel and restaurant workers walked off the job and onto the picket line for more than a month.īokunewicz said none of the casinos involved at the time were closed. The last major strike to hit the Jersey Shore resort city happened Oct. “There’s more people and they can really make a lot of money on a Fourth of July weekend.” “A lot of employees make most of their money - hospitality employees, especially - during the busy summer season because the tips are higher,” Bokunewicz said. “It’s hard to put a number a percentage on it, but it will definitely have an impact for sure.”Ī strike would also affect workers, she added, because the holiday weekend is a big time to earn tips.

“You don’t know how many people will stay away, how well the management will be able to run the properties and keep them operating,” Bokunewicz said. She adds that it will be hard to predict how much of an impact a strike will have on the properties.

“It gives them leverage that it’s right before the holiday weekend.” Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism. “The union picked that date to ratify their contract for that very reason,” said Jane Bokunewicz, director of Stockton University’s Lloyd D. WHYY thanks our sponsors - become a WHYY sponsor

Casino union shop