Struck Casino takes union to labour board for leafleting
CALGARY – A casino mired in a four-week-long labour dispute has made an application to the Labour Relations Board to stop the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) from passing out leaflets around their operations.
ABS Casinos, which owns casinos in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge, has been engaged in a strike at their Calgary Casino since September 23rd. Last Friday, a small number of striking casino employees leafleted an Edmonton Casino owned by the same company. The purpose of the leafleting was to inform patrons about ABS and ask them to boycott all ABS Casinos and gamble somewhere else.
CUPE Alberta President D’Arcy Lanovaz called the company’s action ‘an attempt to trample on free speech’, and predicted the Labour Board would deny the application.
“Everyone in this country has the right to express themselves,” said Lanovaz. “Especially casino workers earning $7 an hour. They have the right to say – this isn’t fair.”
“And they have the right to ask people to boycott ABS Casinos.”
Lanovaz says CUPE expects to do a lot more leafleting in the future. “As long as this employer stubbornly insists that seven cents an hour is a fair wage increase, we are going to ask Albertans to go to other casinos.”
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Labour Board Hearing
Date: Tuesday October 24th, 2005
Time: 9:00 am
Place: Labour Relations Board – Calgary Office
3rd Floor, Deerfoot Junction-Tower 3
1212 - 31st Avenue, N.E
Note to media: Media are welcome to attend the board hearing, but recording devices are not permitted in hearing chambers.
For more information about the strike, go to: www.alberta.cupe.ca/casino.htm