Think casino dealers are fast at the gaming table? Just watch them organize their workplace. On August 29, after a whirlwind four-week organizing campaign, the Casino Calgary employees voted 70 per cent in favour of joining CUPE making it the first unionized casino in Alberta.

"It was very tense for a while," says Lovern Holmes a dealer at the casino and one of the people behind the drive to organize. In spite of management intimidation and living with the threat of losing her job, Holmes says she had a good feeling all the way through it because she knew what a difference the union could make.

Casino employees are among the lowest paid workers in Alberta, averaging $7.10 an hour. Over the past twenty years, the wage rate for dealers has increased by a mere 50 cents an hour.

But, for this group of workers, the opportunity to take matters in to their own hands and be treated with dignity and respect was as important as the need for a decent raise.

The final straw for the casino workers came when they were arbitrarily moved to a compressed work schedule. The new policy effectively denied them any overtime.

"If we continued to accept it, it just gave management permission to deal out more," says Holmes. It was then that she contacted CUPE to see what could be done about the working conditions at Casino Calgary.

Holmes and a contingent of strong supporters knew it would be an uphill battle that could cost them their jobs. "So, we really hustled," she says. The signatures were collected in one week and the group had 65 per cent before management ever knew what was going on.

Casino Calgary is owned by ABS Casino of Edmonton. A 1999 drive to organize one of the Edmonton casinos failed by a narrow margin.

The results in that case were no doubt influenced by the fact that four employees were fired over the push to unionize.

This time, the group worked quickly and quietly. "And, management did us the best favour they ever could," says Holmes.

Retaliatory notices and anti-union threats just made the workers angry and only served to build the momentum to organize. Holmes recalls the woman who approached her with tears in her eyes to say, "We need this so bad. Thank you."

Today, the new CUPE members are excited about their preparations for bargaining a first collective agreement.

Consistent with their track record of their own for keeping one step ahead of the boss, the negotiating committee is working hard to engage all the new members in the process. Because as Holmes says, "The more people involved, the stronger your solidarity."