Connecting personal biography and social history: women casino workers and the global economy

Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Dec, 2001 by Jill B. Jones, Susan Chandler

   I got along with everybody and with the supervisors. I never felt
   intimidated by the supervisors. I never let them know I was afraid of them.
   Most of them like to know that they're in charge, and I never let any of
   them know that. Yes, they were my supervisors, but they were not going to
   make me feel less.

We were surprised to find that everyone we spoke with thought favorably of unions. Reno is a strongly anti-union town, but these immigrant workers were aware of the considerably higher wages Las Vegas workers were earning and looked forward to working in union shops themselves. In this way they are representative of a new, more militant U.S. labor force built of women, minorities, and immigrants (Figueroa, 1998; Gordon, 2000; Tiano, 1994; Sassen, 1998; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 1994). As one former casino worker commented:

   I wasn't working in [a union casino], but I've heard people talk. They say
   it's better.... they say the union pays better so I think it's a good idea.

Outside of work immigrant women struggled to find solutions to problems congruent with their deeply held values. Women spoke with pride of how the immigrant community maintained its cohesiveness:

   Hispanics [may] live ten or twelve in the same house, but they have a
   house. They have a refrigerator. They have a stove. They cook. They buy
   their food together. They have a barbecue. They have fun--listen to music.
   They live like a family even if they're not family.

Discussion: Economic globalization and casino women's experience

Returning to the study's third question--do these women's work narratives provide an example of women's work within a global economy?--perhaps the best way to address this question is to examine the effects of an industry in which profits have become the sole measure of corporate success and workers are viewed as simply a means to that end. This was evident in the stories of both focus group members and the women workers. It helps explain workers' feeling of invisibility to management and their pervasive sense of being "stuck." Several veterans said apologetically that they never intended to stay in casino work, "it just happened." It accounts, too, for the alienation workers experience and the deep-seated depression and despair so often associated with their sense of having no future. It may also explain the rudeness and indifference so many customers show to workers. Why respect workers when it is obvious that management does not?

The casinos' philosophy, "profits over people," to use Noam Chomsky's (1999) apt phrase, is heightened by the growing multinational character of the gaming industry. Reno, formerly known for its locally-owned casinos, whose owners grew rich but also knew their employees, is now dominated by multinational corporations, familiar in name, but faceless in ownership. Instead of investing in the community, absentee owners distribute Nevada casino profits throughout the corporate empire. When they do sponsor community events they are usually designed for profit and public relations rather than community development. This lack of community leadership breeds cynicism, hopelessness, and individualism on the part of citizens who ask themselves, "why invest in a community in which political and corporate powers are only looking out for their own interests?"