Crown Resorts’ woes continue as Crown Melbourne workers prepare to strike just as the highly anticipated Melbourne Cup looms. The Australian casino and hospitality giant recently encountered regulatory problems and is currently struggling with low visitation rates and taxes.
Crown’s workers also aren’t happy with the conditions they are getting. Their current demands include fair wage increases for every year of the new employment agreement and higher weekend and holiday pay rates. Furthermore, employees demand better work rosters that would allow workers to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Finally, the Crown workers demand service-based payment progression.
The upcoming strike comes amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis that continues to affect the global economy. As a result, workers across the world have been increasingly vocal in their demands for better conditions.
Crown Resorts’ workers in particular expressed concerns about the increasing bills and transportation costs that continue to affect their financial well-being.
Protests May Disrupt Crown amid the Melbourne Cup
A proposed schedule envisions strikes to take place on Saturday from 6 pm to 10 pm, Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm and Monday from 6 pm to 10 pm. The strikes will see the Crown workers stop work for four hours on each of the three days in demonstration of their disgruntlement with the current state of affairs.
The strike is set to coincide with the Melbourne Cup, potentially causing trouble for the casino company. Workers likely hope that this will exert pressure and make the higher-ups listen.
At first, the United Workers Union tried to organize a strike involving 3,600 workers, claiming that all union members should be allowed to strike in accordance with a recent vote. At first, Crown tried to bring this number down to only 1,700 but eventually agreed to allow 3,100 employees to strike.
The dispute between the casino company and its workers is ongoing.
Elsewhere, Detroit’s casino workers entered a third week of strike but a resolution seems to be on the horizon. The Detroit strike saw 3,700 unionized casino workers disrupt casino operations.
In the meantime, unionized Las Vegas workers continue to negotiate with local casino employers. A peaceful protest was recently staged but, unfortunately, led to arrests, much to the union’s dismay.