New contract at Lake Michigan casinos win first union vote

Monday, Jan. 24, 2005 | 9:14 a.m.

Members of the union representing housekeepers, servers, cooks and bartenders at four of Indiana's Lake Michigan casinos have approved the first of the agreements that averted a threatened strike.

Eighty-six percent of the union members at Harrah's casino in East Chicago voted in favor of the new contract on Thursday, said Clare Fauke, a spokeswoman for Chicago-based Unite Here Local 1.

That vote came the day after the union reached a tentative agreement with Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City -- the last of the four casinos to do so.

The union has been pushing for improved wages and health insurance and had threatened to strike last weekend if progress was not made in negotiations to replace its expired contracts.

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