Halifax - More than 100 people will lose their jobs at Casino Nova Scotia in Halifax in the coming weeks and the casino will start closing for six hours a day later this month, a spokesman for the casino’s owner said Tuesday. Great Canadian Gaming Corp., based in Richmond, B.C., will cut 15 per cent of the roughly 800 full- and part-time workers, company spokesman Howard Blank said. He said 100 to 120 positions will go.

Casino Windsor avoided its fourth strike in five rounds of talks Wednesday by agreeing to keep one of the highest ratios of full-time workers in the industry. Ken Lewenza, president of CAW Local 444, said his casino members should be extremely grateful to have dodged both a strike and a major concession on the number of them who work part-time.

The BC Government and Service Employees Union is recommending Lake City Casino Employees accept a tentative three year agreement. The new contract covers 500 employees at the Vernon, Kelowna, Penticton and Kamloops casinos. The deal includes an 8 percent wage increase over the next three years, some improved benefits and paid training for Dealers and Security Guards.

Unions representing about 1,200 workers at the Stratosphere hotel-casino reached a tentative labor contract with management over the weekend and plan to hold a vote on the deal Saturday. The agreement involving Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 is the latest in a series of contract agreements reached with Las Vegas Strip employers in the last several months.

Atlantic Cit, New Jersey - Full- and part-time card dealers at the Tropicana Casino and Resort have approved a bid to unionize. The dealers voted 626-157 on Sunday to join the United Auto Workers, the union said. "Workers are on a roll in Atlantic City," said Joe Ashton, director of UAW Region 9, which includes New Jersey. The UAW has been pushing hard to organize workers at all of Atlantic City's 11 casinos. It has won elections at four gambling halls and lost at two others.

Concerned casino workers are seeking a meeting with Prime Minister Patrick Manning to once and for all resolve issues relating to the regularisation or proposed elimination of the local gaming and gambling industry. The union representing the workers, Union of Members Clubs and Lottery Workers, said this request comes on the heels of several meetings with Minister in the Ministry of Finance Conrad Enill which they saw as inconclusive.

Industry - Union leaders led a protest at Assemblyman Charles Calderon's office Tuesday, alleging that a bill being championed by the assemblyman would allow expansion of an Inland Empire tribal casino without adequate protections for workers. About 30 workers and union members carried placards denouncing Calderon and the Morongo Resort and Casino, shouting slogans including "Without Justice or Respect, There is No Peace!" in Spanish.

The voices of the casino workers were heard within the Capitol today. Hundreds of red-shirted workers gathered on the North steps for a rally and then marched inside in an orderly fashion to do some lobbying. The event culminated as over two hundred UNITE-HERE members chanted from the second story of the rotunda "¡Si, Se Puede!" just steps from the office of Speaker Fabian Nunez. The dome amplified the chants as staffers poked their heads out of their office doors and the CHP scrambled to ensure the direct action did not get out of control.

Dealers at Trump Marina Hotel Casino narrowly rejected a bid to unionize, union representatives said Saturday. The dealers voted 183-175 on Friday against joining the United Auto Workers, union representatives said. But they vowed to press on with efforts to organize at other casinos in the city. "We won't let this one vote deter us from moving forward and helping dealers who want to form a union and gain a voice in the decisions that affect their lives and their families," Joe Ashton.