Less than a month after being taken over by Gateway Casinos, employees at Chances Casino in Kamloops have voted 91 per cent in favour to unionize with Unifor.

 

Unifor will represent 94 gaming, security, bingo callers and other workers at the Halston Avenue business.

Not covered are supervisors, managers, HR personnel as well as office and clerical staff.

Organizing Director Kellie Scanlan says the recent labour dispute between the BCGEU and Gateway Casinos didn’t factor too much into this move.

“During the campaign, yeah, some folks had some questions about [whether] what happened at the other casino, could that happen here?” she said. “We tried to be as transparent as possible, that workers get into contract negotiations and there are moments that they come to an impasse.”

It wasn’t the main theme at this particular organizing drive.”

Moving forward, Scanlan says they’ll elect a local bargaining committee at Chances Casino.

“All of what they have currently now freezes in time,” Scanlan added. “We have dates to negotiate which will happen in the month of March.”

“We are going to make sure that the workers in that casino are sitting at the table. We’re ready to go to bargaining with these 94 members and get a deal for them.”

She says they’re hoping to get a 3-4 year deal for the workers at Chances, who will be represented by Unifor Local 4300.