RESORTS Atlantic City unions march on boardwalk

Casino workers have been without a contract since Tuesday.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -- Waving signs that read "No Contract, No Peace" and "Contract Now," an estimated 5,000 casino-hotel workers marched Thursday along the boardwalk and onto the beach in a boisterous show of union solidarity.
There were no arrests or reports of violence, police said.
Most of the marchers were members of the 17,000-member Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, which has been working without a contract since midnight Tuesday. Union members have voted to authorize a strike, but one has not been called.
"We don't want to strike, but we will if we have to," said Mary Walsh, 43, a buffet server at Resorts Atlantic City. "Here, we're trying to show we're all together."
Who is represented
The union, which represents bartenders, cooks, cocktail servers, housekeepers and other rank-and-file casino employees, is embroiled in a bitter dispute with the casinos over the use of nonunion subcontractors in casino restaurants and bars.
They were joined by members of the union's international affiliate, and by construction trades workers and other union supporters from neighboring states.
Starting at opposite ends of the boardwalk, two groups waved signs and chanted slogans, squeezing bystanders to the storefronts and railings that line the boardwalk.
The union last struck in 1999 with a three-day walkout that forced casinos to curtail some services and put executives and managers to work in the vacated union jobs.