The President of Unifor Local 444 says it's really good news to see the deal at Caesars Windsor.
James Stewart was in attendance Friday afternoon as the province announced that Caesars will continue to operate the Windsor casino for the next 20 years.
Caesars Entertainment will remain the service provider following a procurement process that began in August 2022.
Caesars has been operating the Windsor casino for 17 years and currently employs approximately 1,800 people - nearly 1,500 of those employees are unionized members through Unifor Local 444.
Stewart says there would be an impact if the operator at the casino changed.
"Our collective agreements would stay in place, but the relationships and the way we resolve problems would change significantly. And then the fear is - there are some great casinos that could come in and run a facility like this, I'm not taking anything away from them - but when you have a change you get worried about how are they going to be attractive to customers? How are they going to be attractive to the competition in the States? How are they going to attract shows that are attractive?"
He says the employees wanted stability in the future.
"They want to know that their jobs are secure, they want to know that whatever decisions are made by the OLG are going to make sure they've got jobs for a long period of time. There's 1,800 people that work in this facility, unionized and non-unionized, so they all depend on it and so does our city."
Stewart says there were conversations regarding the operator leading into the collective bargaining.
"When you're asking for wages and our members are expecting improvements that they traditionally haven't seen in this industry, it was important to make sure that we're talking about how this facility is going to be successful long term, so that we can bargain in good faith to make good gains for our members."
The deal that was approved on April 8 for unionized members included a $4 raise over three-years, language for retirement packages, improvements to benefits, among more.
The casino first opened in 1994, with Caesars Windsor becoming the official operator in June 2008.