Union asks judge to hold Twin River in contempt
1:03 PM Tue, Oct 13, 2009 | Permalink
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By Paul Grimaldi PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Twin River slot parlor apparently wants to curtail its simulcast racing operation, according to a legal motion filed Tuesday by the slot parlor's pari-mutuel clerks in U.S. District Court in Providence. According to the court filing, a Twin River lawyer told a representative of of Local 334 of the Service Employees International Union, that its members would no longer get overtime pay on Sundays because the Lincoln gambling venue would no longer be conducting simulcast racing. Local 334 represents about 228 people who work in the slot parlor's racing operation. In April 2009, U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith ordered the slot parlor to pay the clerks about $175,000, combined, for working Sundays. Since the ruling, the workers have been getting paid time-and-a-half for working that day. According to a motion filed Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court, a slot parlor manager told a union representative on Oct. 7 that it would stop paying overtime. The motion also states that Michael Chittick, a Twin River lawyer, said the reason for halting the overtime pay was that the slot parlor "has stopped or plans to stop conducting simulcast racing." UTGR Inc., the holding company that operates the slot parlor, on June 23 filed for federal bankruptcy protection. A hearing in that case is set for later today. 
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Twin River should be able to do whatever they have to, to remain viable. If that means cancelling racing, thats how the cookie crumbles. Racing wasn't intended to be a jobs program for connected folks was it?
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How about an additional fact or two? It certainly is not clear from what was in the story whether they intend to stop simulcasting just on Sundays or do they intend to stop simulcasting completely? Hard to believe it isn't a money maker. It was clear from the lousy setup they put in place in the renovation that the management didn't care about the simulcast patrons. I guess the horse people have better judgement than to dump their cash into the slot machines.
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Shouldn't the whole state of RI hold Twin River in contempt. Wait shouldn't we hold the whole GA in contempt.
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Twin River can't afford to pay the low end workers a few dollars in overtime but wants millions of dollars for executives at the top in bonuses as the company goes into bankruptcy. This is the problem that has crippled American Business reward the management and be damned with the workers, owners, and creditors. The taxpayers can bail the company out after its been bleed dry.
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Twin River should remember who started gambling at the track-It was ordinry people betting horses, dogs and then simulcast racing-they would not be in business today if it wasn't for them.
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The taxpayers of Rhode Island should hold both Twin River and the state legislature in contempt. The state saw dollar signs when Twin River expanded and they exacted a tax rate from TR that ensured it could never succeed. Instead of taxing TR at a rate that would have ensured the people of Rhode Island a stream of reliable revenue for the forseeable future, they went for the whole enchilada and created a tax structure that barely allowed TR to make money when economic times were good, but put them in dire straits when the economy went south.
Twin River, for its part, essentially abandoned the dogmen. They managed to make money for years when their core business was racing, but stopped promoting it when they got slots. They made no effort to even try to make money on the racing side of the house. Their crocodile tears about losing money on the dogs are an excuse, not a reason for their difficulties. If it wasn't for the dogs, they'd have never got slots in the first place---as soon as things went bad they threw them under the bus.
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