By JOE WEINERT
Staff Writer, (609) 272-7221

ATLANTIC CITY — Park Place Entertainment Corp. on Tuesday began permanently replacing striking Caesars slot-machine attendants, who picketed the casino and urged gamblers to play next door at Trump Plaza.

The slot attendants, a bargaining unit of 190 members who belong to Teamsters Local 331, struck late Monday night after rejecting what they said was Caesars’ final offer of a 10-cent-per-hour raise.

No further negotiations were scheduled as of Tuesday evening.

Slot attendants earn between $8.60 and $13 an hour depending upon their experience.

“At this point we are very far apart on economics and up to 17 points of discussion in the contract, ranging from benefits to work rules and other things. We do not see a lot of realistic negotiating from the other side,” said Bernard DeLury, corporate counsel for Caesars parent Park Place Entertainment.

Local 331 President Joseph Yeoman accused Park Place of union busting.

“To come in an at the expiration of a contract and have only 10 cents an hour on the table, that’s ridiculous. That’s insulting,” Yeoman said.

“Because Park Place bought Caesars and has all those other places — Hilton, Wild Wild West, Claridge — they don’t want to sell this (proposed) contract to the slot attendants at Caesars and stir up people at those other places. This discourages other people from becoming union,” he said.

The striking slot attendants risk losing their jobs quickly, DeLury warned. He said outside and intercompany applicants are being offered “immediate placement in open positions created by the striking employees.”

“They are not being fired. They are not being locked out. They are free to return to work, despite the fact we are replacing them with permanent employees,” DeLury said.

“If at some time the labor dispute is resolved so that the replaced workers return, they are given preferential treatment in placement. That’s part of the bargaining process,” he said.

Local 331 has charged Park Place with unfair labor practices for threatening employees with job loss, Yeoman said.

“That’s pretty low of any company,” he said. “That’s saying the employees don’t have a right.”

Yeoman said that Wallace Barr, Eastern Casino Group president of Park Place, told strikers they were being fired en masse, but DeLury said that’s not true.

Between 18 and 20 slot attendants crossed the picket line to work their usual shift Tuesday, DeLury said. Supervisors and slot attendants from other Park Place casinos also are helping out.

Outside Caesars, striking slot attendants picketed at each of the casino’s four main entrances and at the parking-garage entrance. Working four-hour shifts scheduled to go around the clock, they handed out leaflets and steered inquiring customers away from Caesars.

“They walk away when they see they’re not going to get serviced like they should,” said one slot attendant who has worked at Caesars eight years.

One leaflet told gamblers to “try the slots at Trump’s next door.”

Trump Plaza Chief Operating Officer Matthew Harkness could not be reached for comment.

Slot-machine attendants are responsible for refilling coin hoppers, paying jackpots of less than $10,000, making minor repairs to the machines and generally helping customers.

Caesars has 3,654 slot machines, which through the first half of this year generated $155.8 million in revenue.

No other unions are honoring the slot attendants’ picket line, DeLury said.

Officials from the city’s largest union, Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, said they are supporting the striking Caesars employees but not honoring their picket line due to a no-strike clause that allows casinos to fire employees who fail to show up for work during a work stoppage.

“The other unions that work with outside contractors can refuse to cross the picket line,” Local 54 President Robert McDevitt said. “Those employees have contracts with contractors that say they don’t have to cross a picket line. We have no right to honor the picket line.”

However, off-duty Local 54 members are offering the striking Teamsters support on the picket line, McDevitt said. He said rank-and-file members have been asked to help the slot attendants distribute leaflets outside Caesars.

“The Teamsters were very supportive of us through our strike and we are trying to do what we can to support them. This is just labor supporting labor,” Local 54 Vice President Al Cohen said.

Local 54, which represents 13,000 casino employees, struck the casinos for three days in September 1999.

Inside Caesars casino, gamblers said they noticed no disruption from the strike. James Goode of Piscataway said several people showed up to refill his slot machine with quarters.

“It’s just more people than usual. Five people were directing the lady. I got the impression it was her first time doing that,” Goode said.

The Caesars slot attendants in 1994 became the nation’s first such union employees and until recently remained the only union attendants in the city.

Tropicana slot attendants in March voted for representation by Local 331 and are now negotiating a contract.

The Caesars attendants say they want, among other things, a 60-cent-per-hour raise, paid sick days, permission to go outside on breaks, and more vacation time for senior employees.

“Ten cents — that’s not even the cost of living,” one striking attendant said.

DeLury would not comment on contract issues.

(Press staff writer Joseph Swavy contributed to this story.)