Casino workers sue for smoke-free workplaces amid legislative inaction

Casino workers frustrated with lawmakers’ persistent failure to ban smoking in gambling halls sued state officials Friday, asking a judge to do what legislators won’t — end casinos’ exemption from the state’s 2006 Smoke-Free Air Act.

In a lawsuit filed in Superior Court, the workers argue that state officials have violated their constitutional rights by allowing casinos to force employees to work in toxic conditions that have caused life-threatening illness and death.

Labor leaders and casino workers rallied outside the Mercer County civil courthouse Friday afternoon to celebrate the latest action in their long-waged fight for a work environment free of secondhand smoke.

“Legislators in Trenton won’t do their jobs,” said Ray Jensen Jr., assistant director of UAW-Region 9, the union representing casino workers. “We’re going to take the decision out of their hands and into a courtroom.”

The complaint names Gov. Phil Murphy and acting health commissioner Dr. Kaitlan Baston as defendants, and the plaintiffs are UAW-Region 9 and anti-smoking group CEASE NJ, which stands for Casino Employees Against Smoking’s (Harmful) Effects.

Murphy spokeswoman Tyler Jones declined to comment.

Casinos have long fought a ban, saying it would drive customers to casinos in other states where smoking is allowed and hurt their revenue. Casino workers have disputed those claims, and did so again Friday.

“No profit margin, real or imaginative, can justify poisoning human beings,” said Daniel Vicente, director of UAW-Region 9.

Jensen challenged lawmakers who have resisted ending the casino exemption.

“I want New Jersey’s politicians to ask themselves this: ‘How many people’s futures have I sacrificed to line the pockets of the wealthy and well-connected?’” he said.

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Casino workers and labor activists gathered outside the Mercer County Civil Courthouse on April 5, 2024, after labor leaders announced a lawsuit they filed against the state that asks a judge to ban smoking in casinos, after years of legislative inaction. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-Burlington) speaks to casino workers and labor leaders outside the Mercer County Civil Courthouse on April 5, 2024, where the workers filed a lawsuit against the state that asks a judge to ban smoking in casinos, after years of legislative inaction. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Casino workers and labor activists gathered outside the Mercer County Civil Courthouse on April 5, 2024, after labor leaders announced a lawsuit they filed against the state that asks a judge to ban smoking in casinos, after years of legislative inaction. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Casino workers and labor activists gathered outside the Mercer County Civil Courthouse on April 5, 2024, after labor leaders announced a lawsuit they filed against the state that asks a judge to ban smoking in casinos, after years of legislative inaction. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Attorney Nancy Erika Smith, center, joined casino workers and labor activists outside the Mercer County Civil Courthouse on April 5, 2024, to announce a lawsuit they filed against the state that asks a judge to ban smoking in casinos, after years of legislative inaction. Smith represents the workers. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Constitutional violations?

Attorney Nancy Erika Smith, who represents the workers, said the state’s failure to ban smoking in casinos violates workers’ constitutional rights to safety and equal protection.

The constitution also forbids lawmakers from giving corporations any exclusive privilege or immunity, but casinos’ exemption from the Smoke-Free Air Act does just that — gives gaming corporations the exclusive right to not follow a state law applicable everywhere else, Smith wrote.

“The CDC has found that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke and that the harmful effects are felt within 60 minutes of exposure,” she said.

The lawsuit comes over two months after a Senate committee approved a bill Sen. Joe Vitale (D-Middlesex) has introduced every two years since 2006 that would end smoking in New Jersey casinos. It has failed to advance most sessions, and while workers said they were encouraged by its progress in January, they have little faith it will make it to the governor’s desk and expect courts will act faster.

Lawmakers’ “political posturing and backroom deal-making has delayed justice for far too long,” Jensen said. “Our legislators refuse shamefully to put people before profits. Today we take them out of the equation.”

Vitale, who chairs the Senate health committee that advanced the bill in January, applauded the lawsuit.

“The State of New Jersey has failed casino workers in Atlantic City for 18 years. We let a false argument about economics subjugate our duty to protect the people we serve, and in doing so, we allowed corporations to poison their employees for nearly two decades,” he said in a statement. “It’s a shameful legacy for our legislature, but I am grateful to everyone involved in today’s landmark lawsuit because it takes this constitutional issue out of the statehouse lobby and into the courthouse.”

Vitale told the New Jersey Monitor Friday that he will push for a vote by the full Senate at its April 15 session. The Assembly version of the bill is stalled in that body’s tourism and gaming committee.

Murphy said in 2021 that he supports making casinos permanently smoke-free.

“If legislation comes to my desk that would ban smoking in casinos, you should assume that I will sign it,” he said on News 12-New Jersey.

The Casino Association of New Jersey did not respond to a request for comment.

New hope for smoke-choked workers

In Trenton Friday, casino workers sang along to Twisted Sister’s 1984 song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and chanted “fired up, ready to go!” as they cheered the lawsuit’s filing.

Jackie DiMatteo is a table games dealer at the Borgata in Atlantic City who has worked in casinos for 35 years. So much smoke surrounds her during a typical shift that “you just can’t breathe,” she said.

“Everyone in the state of New Jersey, they have the rights of no-smoking, and us as casino workers, we’re stuck with it. And I don’t think it’s very fair. It’s my health. I mean, I have a grandson now, and I want to be alive to see him grow up,” DiMatteo said.

Eric Stranere works as a dealer at the Borgata, too.

“Imagine me to you, which is two feet away, and people smoking for an eight-hour shift, having a cigarette lit, chain-smokers. It’s horrible. Nobody should be subjected to that,” Stranere said. “We have rights to our health. But the casino drags their feet, and the Legislature drags their feet.”

U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-03) stopped by the rally, where labor leaders announced the UAW has endorsed him in his U.S. Senate bid, to offer his support.

He got some of the biggest cheers of the afternoon when he alluded to a court battle launched over New Jersey’s notorious county line ballot design, which critics have denounced as unconstitutional.

“I’ll be honest with you — I’ve had a little bit of experience lately with lawsuits and taking legal action. And we won. And we won!” he shouted. “If I don’t want people smoking in the United States Capitol when I’m working, you don’t need to have people smoking where you’re working. You deserve the same protections I get at the Capitol … We can have no exceptions because the Constitution protects everybody. Everybody!”