One dollar in her pocket and tears in her eyes, Gloria Reo did the most humiliating thing she's ever had to
Instead of reporting Tuesday morning to the Atlantic City casino where she had served drinks and bantered with customers for nearly 30 years, she reported instead to her union hall to collect a $25 supermarket card two weeks after being laid off from her job at Resorts Atlantic City.
She wasn't alone. On the other side of the room was David Rothman, a former hotel porter whose two kids want bicycles for Christmas. Unless a relative comes through unexpectedly, they're not getting them.
A few feet away was Anh Do, a woman who used to collect parking fees from a casino lot, watching her 2-year-old son beam as a union worker handed him a Thomas The Tank Engine train set — something she could not afford to do herself. She says this will be her family's worst Christmas ever.
They are among the 205 workers at Resorts who lost their jobs when new ownership took over Dec. 6. Nearly 500 others had their pay slashed by as much as 52 percent.
On Monday, their union, Local 54 of Unite-HERE, held a pre-Christmas charity drive. The union, which represents casino service workers, handed out used coats, hats and gloves, toys for kids and $25 grocery cards to the laid-off casino workers.
Reo fought back tears as a union official handed her a plastic supermarket card.
"I have one dollar in my pocket," she said. "That's so degrading, after working all my life."
Reo was a casualty of the ownership switch at Resorts, which was bought by veteran casino executive Dennis Gomes and New York developer Morris Bailey for $31.5 million. Gomes is adopting a Roaring '20s theme for the casino, in part to capitalize on the popularity of the hit HBO series "Boardwalk Empire," set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City.
To that end, Reo $300 on a costume for her audition for the new owners, including feathers for her hair and a fringe-trimmed flapper outfit with matching shoes. But the 57-year-old did not make the cut, while many younger servers did.
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