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

Drug, alcohol, and gambling addictions are a part of the casino environment, and workers as well as customers fall prey to them. A former cocktail waitress commented:

   If you're working graveyard, trying to stay awake--you're taking some kind
   of speed. People who work swing-shift.... they get drink tokes. So they
   party until two o'clock in the morning and then go home to the kids.

Different populations of workers experienced these problems in different ways. Young workers--waitresses, hostesses, dealers--were more likely to participate in after-work socializing which included drinking, using drugs, and gambling. In the housekeeping department, however, it was a different story. None of our focus group informants identified immigrant housekeepers as having drug and alcohol problems. As one noted: "Those moms in housekeeping--they're tired [when they get off work]. They go home to their children." On the other hand, men in low-paying jobs were described as vulnerable:

   The men [say] that after getting off work they want to relax so they hang
   around their buddies and drink and that's how they get hooked.... Some were
   gambling their entire paychecks. They were afraid to go home because they
   had a wife and children.... But I've only noticed [this] among the men. The
   women, they either don't have that issue or they haven't said so, but I
   don't think it's a problem.

Strategies for Survival

Finally, although life was hard, we would be remiss if we did not communicate the strength of will of the women, their laughter, their strong attachment to family and friends, and their many strategies for survival. Global giants' power is great, but as Foucault writes, it is not hegemonic: "In the relations of power, there is necessarily the power of resistance, for if there were no possibility of resistance--of violent resistance, of escape, of ruse, of strategies that reverse the situation--there would be no relations of power" (quoted in Foote and Frank, 1999, p. 73). One worker commented in a similar vein on powerful institutions: "They touch you here, they touch you there, they touch you everywhere." We were interested in how women workers resisted that touch and what their strategies for survival were.

First, the women were extraordinarily hard workers and in this way guaranteed their own and others' continued employment. "They know the Latina women, they work hard," a former change person said, explaining why employers hired them. Women helped each other out and repeatedly spoke with warmth and concern about their fellow workers:

   I was with a group of women who really helped each other and it was really
   hard work and there was no way anybody would have been able to do it
   [alone].

They also carefully assessed when and how they could resist. While many women were fearful and kept their heads down, most felt keeping quiet was not always a good strategy. They criticized workers who "don't realize that there are things they need to be aware of and they have a lot of rights." As one young worker explained,