Bob McDevitt has won a fifth term as president of UNITE HERE: Local 54, the city’s largest casino workers union. McDevitt defeated Al Tabei for the fifth consecutive time.
The winning slate included Vice President Javier Soto and Secretary-Treasurer Donna DeCaprio, both incumbents. The local casino industry employed more than 30,000 people in 2018, and Local 54 represents nearly one-third of Atlantic City’s casino and hospitality workers.
The losing side accused McDevitt and his team of forcing shop stewards to convince members to either vote for McDevitt or not vote at all. A van transporting members to the voting station was seen ejecting a worker who said she was going to vote against McDevitt. What the opposition calls “thugs” were surrounding the voting location intimidating members arriving to vote.
Of 16,000 eligible members, only 1,596 voted. McDevitt prevailed by 268 votes. Many of those who arrived to vote were challenged about their paid-up union dues, and eventually left without voting. Lawyers for Tabei and his slate believe there are grounds for a challenge and will seek to overturn the vote.
The election victory comes just months before negotiations will start on the next contracts with Atlantic City casinos. Opponents claim that the last three contracts have resulted in givebacks that have weakened the position of the union, cost jobs and reduced opportunities for union members.
Local 54 has a history of corruption. One of McDevitt’s predecessors, Roy Silbert, was removed from power in 1990, along with the union’s national president Edward Hanley, and accused of being controlled by the Philadelphia mob family of Angelo Bruno and later Nicky Scarfo. Silbert is now an MMA referee.
