DETROIT (WXYZ) — Throughout downtown Detroit, you'll hear the sound of workers fed up. Thousands of casino employees from five different unions walked off the job Tuesday, going on strike for the first time.
“This is history,” said MGM Grand employee and UAW Local 7777 member Roderick Gillespie. "We're up for the fight — we’re ready.”
Gillespie has worked at MGM Grand Detroit for over 20 years and says he and his coworkers deserve better raises and retirement benefits.
“Over the years, they've made a lot of money and we've been treated unfairly," Gillespie said. "We just want a just wage — it’s as simple as that.”
Gillespie is represented by the United Auto Workers union, along with roughly 1,000 other casino workers and more than 1,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield workers also on strike just across the street.
“When they first came out, we left our strike line and all of the Blue Cross members went over there and marched in their line and supported them,” BCBS employee and UAW member Derrick Jackson said.
Jackson has been on strike for more than a month. Like their auto worker counterparts, they too are making $500 a week in strike pay.
“It may not be what you make at work, but it's a great help to have that — helps us stay out here a little bit longer,” Jackson said. “We're truly grateful because back in the day with unions and strikes, we didn't have that.”
Before striking Big Three automakers, the UAW had $825 million in its strike fund. While the auto workers strategic strike plan is helping stretch that out, striking casino workers will cost the fund another $500,000 per week.
The UAW declined to say how much remains in the fund a month into the Big Three strike.
With multiple strikes at once, Jackson is thankful the union had so much saved and recently increased strike pay from $300 to $500 per week.
“The strike pay was raised up just in the nick of time because I don't think anyone really foresaw the year of the strike,” Jackson said.
With hundreds of millions still left in the fund, workers hope it will last until the last contract is signed.
“We're going to fight the fight. That's the best thing I can say," Gillespie said. "We're going to fight the fight and we're going to win.”
