Turning the Tables?

     There are times when one's most cynical suspicions are confirmed.  Once again, we need look no further than the late Marty Levitt's book, Confessions of a Union Buster, Pages 39-40:

Here is an example from the Shefferman school of subterfuge: Under the real or even theoretical threat of a union, Shefferman advised management to institute a device called an employee roundtable. Purportedly designed to give workers a way to air their grievances and influence company policy, in reality the roundtable becomes management’s tap into the worker grapevine and its repressive thumb on the informal worker power structure. The regular group meetings provided management with a system for planting information, as well as for identifying and controlling the leaders among the employees. Shefferman lays out the blueprint for such roundtables in his book. Calling them “rotating employee committees,” he presents the sessions as open forums, absent any supervisors, opportunities for workers to gripe without fear of reprisal. But the fact is, such committees serve management’s interest more directly than the needs of the workers…

In his book Shefferman doesn’t spell out the reason for the rotating participation in the employee committees. But his students-who later became my teachers-learned it well and passed it along: by continually changing the makeup of the employee committee, management could keep abreast of complaints and rumors circulating in the various departments without creating a bond among the participants or inadvertently developing leaders. The goal was to foster cooperation between employees and management, not among the employees themselves. In tandem with the gripe sessions, Shefferman prescribed a very intricate supervisor training course.     (any emphasis ours)

     Our Supervisors have indeed been undergoing their own training since this website went up.  Remember, Supervisors had their own meetings when we had our captive audience meetings.  Word has it that they have had smaller "meetings" with Harrah's Union busters since.

     Harveys/Harrah's does have its own "employee roundtable," and they call it “Turning the Tables.” Notice that the word “table” was not even removed from the device.  Since this Union drive has started, they have been putting an increased emphasis on it, although, as you can see from the progress logged below, there is nothing substantial that has been accomplished for us.

Harrah's did not listen to committee members about hour-twenties.

     It is clear that upper management is not going to listen to us when they do not have to. To those who have issues which have not been addressed: with our Union, we will have a genuine way to pursue those issues at our workplace that have been ignored.

     At first, many thought that "Turning the Tables" would be a good thing.  We get to inform those above us what is wrong about our workplace, and there is nice, convenient venue in which to do it.  Unfortunately, this is evidence that "Turning the Tables" is little more than a Union prevention tactic. It creates the illusion that we have some say over our issues in the workplace. Unfortunately, it is rare that an issue addressed directly benefits the worker. The only ones that are corrected affect the bottom line and are mostly minor investments that the casino should be making anyway in order to keep from losing customers. If there were some essential worker issues corrected as a result of the meetings, we would be more inclined to believe the sincerity of the title of this committee.

     There were 102 issues addressed in our last "Turning the Tables" newsletter.  Here's a quick breakdown of what was addressed during the Spring-Summer '07 edition:

• Ninety (90) items under "Completed Maintenance Issues."   

• Seven (7) items under "Cleaning/Property Maintenance." 

• Only five (5) items under "Procedure/Work Environment."  This list is the only one that addresses dealers' issues and is short enough to list in its entirety. 
  

1. 50 cent pieces can be wagered for tokes and Pai Gow Poker commissions. 

2. 50% off dining coupon program reinstituted. 

3. TV in High Sierra Cafe (employee cafeteria) will have one sports channel on Sunday for football watchers. 
        If only it could be basketball games so that we could root for the team playing
        against the Boston Celtics on our breaks.*

4. Heaters installed for comfort in Party Pit.  

5. Fans on Pit stands installed. 

     Of course, our management does know what it is doing, and "Turning the Tables" has had no impact on our real issues.  We got a few fans and heaters but nothing substantial.  They can pretend, from here on out, that "Turning the Tables" is for our benefit, but with the lack of accomplishments in the six months prior to the Union drive and lack of action on hour-twenties, we know better.

*  It is not to our benefit if the Boston Celtics are in the playoffs, because all Celtics games are excluded from action at Harrah's sports books, so players wishing to bet on a Celtics game will have to go elsewhere.  This is due to the NBA's concern about Gary Loveman's conflicting duties as both Harrah's CEO and his partial ownership of  the Celtics.