[ad_1]
- A measure that may ban smoking in Atlantic City casinos cleared the New Jersey Senate well being committee on Monday.
- New Jersey legislation at the moment permits smoking on as much as 25% of the casino ground.
- Casino employees’ teams have spent a number of years advocating for a complete ban, with little progress made — Nicola Vitola, a Borgata seller and ban advocate, likened Monday’s vote to having “cracked the egg.”
A measure that may prohibit smoking in Atlantic City’s casinos moved ahead Monday after three years of going nowhere, heartening casino employees who say they’re actually sick and bored with having smoke blown in their faces at work.
The New Jersey Senate well being committee authorized a long-delayed invoice to impose a smoking ban in Atlantic City’s 9 casinos.
It was step one in a protracted chain of essential approvals, and it got here because the motion by many casino employees to implement a ban entered its fourth 12 months.
UNION PROTESTERS BLOW CIGARETTE SMOKE AT NJ LAWMAKERS AS ATLANTIC CITY SMOKING BAN REMAINS IN LIMBO
The vote additionally touched off a confrontation amongst casino employees outdoors the state Capitol afterward, with supporters of a smoking ban and opponents of the proposal screaming at each other on the sidewalk earlier than being separated by their respective camps.
And a outstanding enterprise group and a casino employees union warned {that a} smoking ban can be “an economic catastrophe” that may price Atlantic City and the southern New Jersey area jobs and cash.
Casino employees who favor the ban have been elated to lastly have it voted on after years of inertia.
“We feel like we cracked the egg,” mentioned Nicola Vitola, a Borgata seller and a pacesetter of the motion to ban casino smoking.
Smoking is permitted on 25% of the casino ground in Atlantic City. But these areas will not be contiguous, and smoke wafts into most areas of the playing ground, no matter their designation.
Casinos have been particularly exempted from New Jersey’s 2006 legislation that banned smoking in nearly all different workplaces.
Vitola mentioned that whereas she was pregnant, she was assigned to work tables in smoking sections.
“Dealers are mere inches from players blowing smoke in our faces,” she mentioned.
A gambler lights a cigarette at Harrahs casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Sept. 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Christina Renna, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey, mentioned that whereas smoking is undoubtedly dangerous, so, too, might be the layoffs she and executives from the casino business warn might occur if smoking have been banned.
Donna DeCaprio, president of Local 54 of the Unite Here union, which represents bartenders, cocktail servers, room cleaners and others, famous that there was 50,000 casino jobs in Atlantic City. She warned that the invoice might eradicate 3,000 of them.
In a web-based dialogue with Sen. Joseph Vitale, the committee’s Democratic chair, she mentioned she warned that as many as three Atlantic City casinos might be pressured to shut if a smoking ban have been imposed whereas casinos in neighboring Pennsylvania proceed to supply it.
“In south Jersey, there are no replacement jobs of this caliber,” she mentioned. “A total ban is going to result in an economic catastrophe for Atlantic City, the region and the state.”
Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, mentioned polling has proven that extra individuals say they might go to Atlantic City casinos if smoking have been prohibited.
The casino business opposes a complete smoking ban and says it’s engaged on proposals together with higher air flow programs and enclosed smoking rooms in which no workers can be involuntarily assigned to work. The Casino Association of New Jersey mentioned in a press release it’s keen “to find a meaningful compromise that will address the concerns of our employees without jeopardizing jobs and benefits to some of our most vulnerable citizens.”
A Republican senator, Vince Polistina, has mentioned he’ll draft a brand new invoice incorporating these proposals, however he has but to take action.
The invoice that was acted upon Monday now goes to the total state Senate for a vote. An equivalent invoice additionally have to be authorized by an Assembly committee and voted upon by the total chamber earlier than it may well go to the desk of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who has mentioned he’ll signal a smoking ban into legislation.
Sen. Shirley Turner, who has co-sponsored payments for years that may have imposed a casino smoking ban, mentioned casino employees are left in an untenable place.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“You shouldn’t have to make that kind of decision in this country: your job or your health,” she mentioned. “That’s not America.”
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink