In a secret ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board on Saturday, dealers at Caesars Atlantic City voted 572-128 in favor of representation by the United Auto Workers. The casino, which is owned by Harrah's Entertainment Inc., reportedly has pledged to file objections to the election

The Press of Atlantic City noted that the union had unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the casino to agree to card check recognition, enlisting a number of state and federal lawmakers in the effort. U.S. Representative Robert Andrews (D-NJ), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, is one of the public officials pressuring the casinos to agree to card check.

According to Business Week :

Many of the 45,000 casino workers in the city already are represented by unions, including many service employees, but dealers are not among them. Previous efforts to unionize dealers by the Teamsters, the United Food & Commercial Workers and the Sports Arena Employees union all were unsuccessful.

Dealers at Trump Plaza are scheduled to vote in an NLRB election on March 31. The UAW, which represents some casino employees in Detroit, has announced organizing efforts among several other Atlantic City casinos.

A spokesman for Atlantic City Hilton Casino and Resorts claimed that dealers had come to him with reports of threats from the union and that “[o]ne hundred-fifty dealers who originally signed the union cards have since signed revocation letters after the Hilton had meetings ‘explaining why we think that a third party is unnecessary.’”  Interestingly, during the debate on a proposed amendment to the Employee Free Choice Act, Rep. Andrews stated that if an employee requested to have his or her card returned, the card would be treated as invalid under the EFCA. (See Live Blogging the Employee Free Choice Act Floor Debate, 12:35 p.m. entry.)