Twin River Workers to Strike on Friday, RI Revenues Could Be Impacted, & Raimondo Monitoring
GoLocalProv Business Team
Twin River Workers to Strike on Friday, RI Revenues Could Be Impacted, & Raimondo Monitoring
John Taylor heads Twin RiverOver 300 Twin River Casino food and beverage workers who are members of UNITE HERE Local 26 will walk off the job for a two-day strike beginning Friday, June 9, at 4 AM, said union officals.
Twin River Casino unilaterally reduced healthcare coverage on January 1, despite years of growing casino revenue.
"We are monitoring the situation and have reached out to both sides," said David Ortiz, spokesperson for Governor Gina Raimondo. Gaming is Rhode Island's third largest source of revenue and a strike could impact business at Twin River and, correspondlingly, revenue.
"Workers are demanding that health benefits be restored, family healthcare made more affordable, and reasonable raises," said the Union of Thursday night.
Will Union Workers Building the Hotel Cross the UNITE HERE Picket?
“There's no indication whatsoever that construction of the hotel will be impacted in any way (by a strike of Unite Here Local 26 of the Food and Beverage Workers),” said Patti Doyle, spokeswoman for Twin River Casino.
On Wednesday afternoon the union that represents cocktail servers, cooks, and other food and beverage workers at the Twin River Casino authorized s strike by a vote of 327 to 5.
“Workers gave the company until 4:00 am on Friday morning to come up with a deal. If not, they’ll walk out,” said the union.
Doyle said, “"We were aware in advance of the possible strike action by a subset of Twin River Casino employees. We have prepared for this eventuality and expect no interruption in the food, beverage and gaming service we intend to provide our customers this weekend.”
Twin River has placed ads in local publications for positions in our food and beverage departments. We have immediate openings, and offer highly competitive wages and benefits.
How Do Twin River Casino and Plainridge Park Casino Match Up?
Number of Slot Machines
Twin River: 4,500
Plaindridge Park: 1,200
Twin River has nearly four times the number of slot machines that Plainridge Park has available.
Photo courtesy of: Flickr/Raging Wire
Number of Table Games
Twin River: 80
Plaindridge Park: 50
Twin River offers 30 more table options than Plainridge Park, including poker, blackjack, craps, and more.
Photo courtesy of Flickr/Images Money
Payout Percentage
Twin River: 90.845%
Plaindridge Park: N/A
The data for Plainridge Park will come out in the coming months, but Twin River's customers won back 90.845% of their money in May of 2015.
Photo courtesy of Flickr/Jessie Hodge
Square Feet
Twin River: 300,000
Plaindridge Park: 106,000
Twin River's facility is nearly triple the size of Plainridge Park's and neither is limited to gambling areas.
The former has an event center, a cigar bar, and more. The latter has several restaurants and a horse track.
Number of Hotel Rooms
Twin River: None
Plaindridge Park: None
Neither Twin River or Plainridge Park currently offer hotel accomodations for their customers. Instead, they suggest to search for nearby options.
However, plans to build a hotel at Twin River were approved in March of 2015 by the RI House of Representatives. A date for when construction would be finalized has not been announced.
Number of Restaurants
Twin River: 2
Plaindridge Park: 2
While both facilties offer food court options, each has two prominent dining locations.