Casino workers hard hit after tourism slowdown

Lisa Snedeker

Monday, Dec. 31, 2001 | 11 a.m.

Lucy Cedeno hasn't worked since Sept. 23.

A former employee at the Riviera hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Cedeno is among the some 15,000 casino workers for whom the glittering boulevard has lost its luster.

Cedeno's position as change person was among the one out of every 20 casino jobs in Las Vegas eliminated in the month after the September terrorist attacks when the nation's tourism industry ground to a halt.

"We didn't ask for this to happen to us when those planes crashed into the towers. We didn't ask to lose our jobs," Cedeno said. "I feel sorry for the people with kids."

An additional 2,000 workers lost jobs in other fields, the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation reports.

Thousands of others in the casino industry have had their hours slashed, causing an ominous wave through a tourism-dependent state.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has ordered a hiring freeze and spending cuts because of a drop in gambling revenue and taxes, which fund more than one-third of Nevada's budget.

"When the casino worker loses his job, then there's a grocery store worker who loses his job, and there's a multiplier effect," UNLV economics professor Jeffrey Waddoups said.

Nevada's jobless rate jumped 1.5 percentage points in October to 6.3 percent -- its highest level in six years. The U.S. rate was 5.4 percent. The Nevada rate rose again in November to 6.5 percent.

Total unemployment in the Las Vegas area rose by 14,000 from September to October, an increase from 5 percent to nearly 7 percent. In Reno, the unemployment rate for October was 3.7 percent and Carson City reported 5.1 percent.

As a result, Nevada said its welfare caseload grew by 10.6 percent in November to 26,378 after October's nearly 9 percent increase.

Nearly 10,000 more people are collecting welfare than in July 2000, and the number of those on food stamps is increasing.

Hospitals are seeing more patients who lack health insurance.

"And we haven't seen the worst yet," University Medical Center spokesman Rick Plummer said. "Thousands of people are getting notices that their insurance will be up at the end of this month."

Approximately 23,300 people covered by the Culinary Union's health insurance plan will lose their benefits Jan. 1. Union leaders said 9,700 members of Local 226 didn't work enough hours in September and October to qualify for health coverage during the first two months of 2002. Approximately 2.4 people are covered by each policy.

Jewel Jackson, a single parent of two teenage daughters, had worked as a laundry valet at the Four Seasons at Mandalay Bay resort for 2 1/2 years.

"It's very stressful," she said. "We need some help. There's a lot of people who have been left homeless. But we are only asking for the short term, we want to work."

Since the attacks, the United Way of Southern Nevada has raised $700,000 and helped 1,000 people through its displaced worker fund, spokeswoman Gena Satori said.

"Of that, $525,000 went for rent relief helping 525 families stay in their homes," she said. The remainder went to local agencies providing such assistance as food, utilities and transportation.

As travelers return to the Las Vegas Strip, the three largest resort operators -- MGM MIRAGE, Park Place Entertainment Corp. and Mandalay Resort Group -- have recalled an estimated 4,400 of the nearly 13,000 workers laid off by the three companies.

But many of those recalled have found themselves without work again in December, traditionally a slow period.

Laura Mejia lost her job as a housekeeper at the Flamingo Hilton hotel-casino along with her benefits, including health insurance for her husband and six children, ages 4 to 14.

"They want me to pay if I still want benefits," she said.

The 32-year-old said her 40-hour-a-week job had been cut to one day a week after Sept. 24, just before she and her husband, Pedro, bought a new house.

Now Mejia says she's worried that her family will lose their home because her husband only makes $12 an hour as a construction worker and she brings in just $121 a week from unemployment.

Mejia said her kids don't stop eating because times are tough.

"He was working on the weekends but this time of year it gets slow," she said. "It's hard to pay the bills. I spend a $100 a week on food."

Some economists believe southern Nevada is beginning to bounce back.

"We took a hit," said Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV. "But the most significant effects have occurred and we're recovering."

About 3,600 jobs were added when two hotel-casinos opened in the Las Vegas area within the past month.

But even if business returns to its former highs, it is unlikely all laid off employees will be rehired because most hotel-casino operators acknowledge their companies have streamlined operations.

Other jobs are available, however, according to state economic data. And Nevada's branch of America's Job Bank shows at least 4,075 openings posted in the state, said Karren Rhodes, spokeswoman for the state employment department.

"If you are dealer and you want to get a job, chances are you might be able to get a job somewhere else like Reno," Rhodes said.

"A woman called yesterday who moved to Wisconsin and said she went from dealing cards in Carson City to an Indian casino where she's making a higher hourly wage."

Other workers may need to be retrained, Rhodes said.

"Either you find a new job or you go to the Job Link office which takes you out of the realm of just knowing how to deal cards and into something that is marketable," she said.

For Cedeno, the 43-year-old Culinary union member said she is turning to Local 226 for training in another field, because her husband, a construction worker, was laid off, too.

"I've got to have something," Cedeno said.