Casino Women

Susan Chandler, B. Jones Jill

Description

Casino Women is a pioneering look at the female face of corporate gaming. Based on extended interviews with maids, cocktail waitresses, cooks, laundry workers, dealers, pit bosses, managers, and vice presidents, the book describes in compelling detail a world whose enormous profitability is dependent on the labor of women assigned stereotypically female occupations-making beds and serving food on the one hand and providing sexual allure on the other. But behind the neon lies another world, peopled by thousands of remarkable women who assert their humanity in the face of gaming empires' relentless quest for profits.The casino women profiled here generally fall into two groups. Geoconda Arguello Kline, typical of the first, arrived in the United States in the 1980s fleeing the war in Nicaragua. Finding work as a Las Vegas hotel maid, she overcame her initial fear of organizing and joined with others to build the preeminent grassroots union in the nation-the 60,000-member Culinary Union-becoming in time its president. In Las Vegas, "the hottest union city in America," the collective actions of union activists have won economic and political power for tens of thousands of working Nevadans and their families. The story of these women's transformation and their success in creating a union able to face off against global gaming giants form the centerpiece of this book.Another group of women, dealers and middle managers among them, did not act. Fearful of losing their jobs, they remained silent, declining to speak out when others were abused, and in the case of middle managers, taking on the corporations' goals as their own. Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones appraise the cost of their silence and examine the factors that pushed some women into activism and led others to accept the status quo.Casino Women will appeal to all readers interested in women, gambling, and working-class life, and in how ordinary people stand up to corporate actors who appear to hold all the cards.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• Industrial relations
• Labour economics
• Tertiary sector of the economy
• États-Unis
• Nevada

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801462696
• Langue: English

Extrait

CASINO WOMEN

CASINO WOMEN Courage in Unexpected Places

Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones

ILR PRESS, AN IMPRINT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON

Copyright © 2011 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2011 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Chandler, Susan Kerr.  Casino women : courage in unexpected places / Susan Chandler and Jill B. Jones.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801450143 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Casinos—Nevada—Employees. 2. Gambling industry—Nevada— Employees. 3. Women service industries workers—Nevada. 4. Employee rights—Nevada. I. Jones, Jill B. II. Title.  HV6721.N45C43 2011  331.4'8179509793—dc22 2011009589

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Nevada’s women casino workers and their dreams of a better world

Sólo le pido a Dios Que el dolor no me sea indiferente, Que la reseca muerte no me encuentre Vacío y solo sin haber hecho lo suficiente.

I only ask of God That he not let me be indifferent to the suffering, And when death, that dusty time, comes That I not be alone and empty, having not given my everything. —León Gieco

Contents

Par t I

Acknowledgments

 1.  “You Have to Do It for the People Coming”

BACK OF THE HOUSE, FRONT OF THE HOUSE  2.  “They’re Treating Us Like Donkeys, Really”: Housekeeping and Other Back of the House Work  3.  “Kiss My Foot”: Cocktail Waitressing

Par t IIWOMEN UNION  4.  “I’ll Always Love the Union”  5.  “Here’s My Heart”

Par t III NONUNION WOMEN STAND UP  6.  DarleneJespersen v. Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.  7.  Liberation Theology, Pit Boss Style

Par t IV DEALERS: THE ILLUSION OF POWER  8.  Dealing: The View from Dead Center  9.  Stuck 10.  Big Tobacco Rides the Strip

Par t V WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT 11. Crossing Over to the Other Side 12.  Conclusion: “A Marvelous Victory”

Notes Bibliography Index

xi

1

15 29

47 61

79 97

109 125 137

157 170

179 201 219