After court loss, casino workers vow to renew fight in Trenton for smoke-free workplaces

Casino workers and labor activists gathered outside the Mercer County Civil Courthouse on April 5, 2024, after labor leaders announced a lawsuit they filed against the state that asks a judge to ban smoking in casinos, after years of legislative inaction. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Casino workers and their union leaders warned Wednesday they’ll take “more militant actions” to end the casino carveout in New Jersey’s indoor-smoking ban after a state judge last week threw out a lawsuit they hoped would force the issue in court.

They wasted no time getting started.

During a Wednesday news media call, they bashed an assemblyman who they blamed for failing to act on pending legislation that would end casinos’ long-time exemption from the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act .

They announced the UAW, the union that filed the lawsuit on behalf of 3,000 casino workers in Atlantic City, will break with the AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization of several other unions that sought a dismissal of the casino workers’ lawsuit.

And they vowed to “drag out anyone who wants to stand against us, whether that’s other labor unions or elected officials.”

“We’re like a cornered animal right now,” UAW-Region 9 director Daniel Vicente said. “We have labor protection, so if we want to, if we got to dust it up, let us dust it up. And we got bail money, we’ll be all right.”

The tough talk came five days after a state judge tossed a lawsuit UAW and CEASE NJ, a group of casino workers, filed in April asking the courts to do what the Legislature has refused to do for 18 years — end casinos’ exemption from the state’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act.

In that dismissal, Judge Patrick J. Bartels wrote that the state constitution did not create a right to safety, but rather only a right to pursue safety.

“While the court is sympathetic to the health hazards, it has determined that safety is not a fundamental right,” Bartels wrote. “The constitution guarantees individuals the right to make decisions regarding their own safety or alternatively, the ability to decide to take certain risks regarding their safety, such as the ability of individuals to choose to work in dangerous jobs despite the known safety risks in that line of work.”

He rejected arguments that the carveout, narrowly tailored to apply to workers in the only New Jersey city that allows gaming houses, was unconstitutional special legislation that should have included other classes of people.

The ruling was a victory for casinos and some worker unions that opposed the suit over worries it would drive gamblers to gaming houses in neighboring states, costing revenue and jobs.

But it infuriated casino workers, whose attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, told the New Jersey Monitor that she expects to file a motion for appeal within the coming week.

On Wednesday, Vicente said all UAW chapters in New Jersey will leave the AFL-CIO in protest over the opposition by some unions under the AFL-CIO umbrella to their lawsuit.

“We pay thousands of dollars to be a part of this organization, and that organization has been actively undermining our efforts to protect the health and safety of our members,” Vicente said. “Health and safety is one of the founding principles of unionism. So if you stand against that, you stand against exactly what we’re supposed to be.”

Whether an appeal succeeds or not, casino workers said they would renew their efforts to get legislation passed in Trenton, saying secondhand smoke has driven up deadly diseases among casino workers.

“We just want the same protections as everyone else in the state,” said Pete Naccarelli, a Borgota dealer and cofounder of CEASE-NJ. “We ask the lawmakers: Will you do the right thing, or do you agree with the ruling, with the judge quoted saying, ‘safety is not a fundamental right of the workers?’”

The Senate’s health committee advanced a bill to end the carveout in January. Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), a prime sponsor of the bill, said Wednesday he will press for a full Senate vote when that body returns from its summer break later this month. Gov. Phil Murphy has said he would sign the bill, Vitale added.

Vitale lashed out at the bill’s critics in the Statehouse, largely Republicans who have voiced concerns about the economic impact of ending the carveout. Banning indoor smoking didn’t hurt restaurants or other businesses, so that’s a “flawed argument,” Vitale said.

“It’s really meant to deceive lawmakers and policymakers and frighten them, and we can’t stand for that,” Vitale said.

Naccarelli and Vicente called on Assemblyman William Moen Jr. (D-Camden) to act, blaming him for the bill’s inertia in the Assembly this session. Moen is prime sponsor of the Assembly bill to end the carveout and chairs that chamber’s gaming committee where it’s stalled.

“We’re drawing a line in the sand on this,” Vicente said. “Our people’s lives are at risk. We have a moral obligation to take up this fight. … If you ain’t willing to do that, you’re not a friend of the labor movement.”

Moen told the New Jersey Monitor he would work with legislative leadership this fall to “fix” the law’s casino loophole and said his goal, as prime sponsor, has been to “build as much support as possible for a smoke-free environment in New Jersey’s casinos.”

Besides Moen and Vitale, the bill has two other prime sponsors, one in each chamber. Moen noted the “overwhelming number” of co-sponsors too — 40 in the Assembly and 15 in the Senate. A bill needs 21 votes in the Senate and 41 in Assembly to pass, after advancing through committees in both chambers.

“We recognize that this issue is complex, emotional, and has pitted well-intentioned unions and some of their own members against each other, polling on the issue that reports differing conclusions, and local elected officials and state lawmakers on both sides of this issue,” Moen said in a statement. “Other states are working through this same, complex issue — this is not unique to New Jersey.”

CEASE-NJ plans to launch a series of ads soon to persuade doubters. The ads will feature the children of casino workers who fear for their parents’ health and safety.

Twenty-one states include casinos in their statewide smoke-free workplace laws, said Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.

Nikita Biryukov contributed.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX