Move Prompts Racetrack to Layoff Workers

When you picture a casino what images come into your mind? Maybe you see the bright lights of the performers signs. Or perhaps it conjures up images of winning the big jackpot and being set for life. Heck, some people even picture the all you can eat for $9.99 buffet line. Either way, the odds are that you did not conjure up images of pink slips, but that is exactly what is happen to several employees of the casino industry this Sunday. They will be let go when their casino moves to a new location.

The casino is question is located not in the iconic glitz of the Las Vegas strip, or even the well known shores of Atlantic City, but in the state of New York. The employees who are about to lose their jobs work for the New York Racing Association. The new opening of a new casino in their area, and a corporate deal means that the races will move from its former home in the Belmont to the Aqueduct.

When the move goes on 96 employees working at the Belmont will be let go, and some of them have been lifelong employees of the noted racetrack. David Smukler, the Senior Vice President of Human Resources & Labor Relations for the company that owns the track, had this to say about the job losses, “Many will be in the custodial and maintenance of the building and parking,” He also made note of the fact that the pink slips will go out to the unfortunate employees on Sunday of this week.

When the races move to the casino the facility will use its own staff to care for the new racetrack and deal with the kind of maintenance issues that the laid off employees would have done. Resorts World New York will be operated by Genting, which makes them the Aqueduct’s new landlord.

The good news, such as it is, has two parts. The first bit of luck is that the layoffs will not be immediate. The race will not move to the casino immediately upon its opening. Though there is not a big gap every days pay counts before a layoff. The new casino is slated to open on October 28th. The horses will not move into the facility until the 4th of November. The second bit of good news is that the New York Racing Association is not doing total layoffs. A small portion of the current staff, just 30 people, are expected to be kept on in order to clean and care for the existing facility. They are being kept on because the old Belmont facility will be kept open, for the time being, for the simulcasting of the races. It was not mentioned for how long that simulcasting may go on before the facility is shut down for good.

The company was quick to mention that it has notified the union for these workers about their displacement within the agreed upon time frame in their contracts. As to why the workers themselves are just finding out now, well that is unknown.