Union head demands Prieto’s resignation
Bob McDevitt, head of main casino workers union says Vincent Prieto should resign as speaker of the New Jersey Assembly.
US.- The head of Atlantic City’s main casino workers union declared that Vincent Prieto should resign as speaker of the New Jersey Assembly for being unable to deliver on an aid package for the struggling resort.
Bob McDevitt, who is the president of Local 54 of the Unite-HERE union, is convinced that Prieto can no longer lead the Assembly because he has been unable to gather votes in his very own chamber for a bill he proposed to help the City.
“It’s May, and we’re almost in June, and he’s held up the entire plan to save Atlantic City since January,” said McDevitt. “He sat on his own bill, then the day he posted it, he backed down. It’s a disgrace. He’s destroying the future of my city.”
On May 5, Prieto failed in an attempt to have his bill voted on in the Assembly when a handful of lawmakers did not show up to vote. Prieto promised he will try for a new bill acceptable to both houses, but such bill has yet to be proposed.
Atlantic City is on the verge of going broke. Its finances have worsened over the past 10 years as its casino industry contracted and four of its 12 casinos shut down in 2014. The city’s casino revenue plunged from US$5.2 billion in 2006 to US$2.56 billion in 2015.
