Massachusetts AFL-CIO Testimony Before Joint Standing Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technology

Robert J. Haynes, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO

Testimony before the Joint Standing Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies

Tuesday March 18, 2008 ~ 10 AM ~ Gardner Auditorium, State House

Thank you Chairman Bosley, Chairman Hart, and members of the Committee.

For the record my name is Robert Haynes and I am President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. I have the honor and privilege to head an organization that represents nearly 400,000 working families from over 750 local unions in the building and construction trades, public, and industrial and service sectors. I didn't bring them all with me because I didn't think there would be enough seats for all of us, but you can see how many people are here because they care so much about this issue.

In addition to our own members, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO strives daily to fight for and speak on behalf of the best interests of all working families in the Commonwealth. We are a "quality of life" organization. That is what I'd like to discuss with you here today.

Today I will try to be as brief as possible because I know there are many proponents of Destination Resort Casinos who have come here to speak to you about the overwhelming merits of this kind of economic development.

I am here to testify in support of establishing Destination Resort Casinos in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Governor has submitted a specific piece of legislation to the General Court. I hope that this Committee understands the grave responsibility you have to give this legislation a fair hearing. In order for the legislature to do what it does best - write good legislation - this Committee has a duty to allow this process to provide for a full debate of the issue. In order for the legislature to put its intelligence and expertise to work on coming up with the best possible Destination Resort Casinos legislation, this Committee must advance the bill through the process in a way that allows the debate to continue. Do not shut us out and ignore our will on this issue.

This is not an open and shut case and I hope this Committee understands that. Let's have a real debate on such a serious economic development initiative. Let's not have a pre-determined political outcome before we've even had the chance to make our case. As our elected leaders you have a responsibility to listen to your citizens. I urge you not to forget that I'm sitting here on behalf of voters, of citizens, of families in support of Destination Resort Casinos. I'm not here on behalf of some nameless, faceless "union." I represent real people and real families who participate in our society and demand to be heard. We in the Labor Movement are all about democracy, all about transparency, all about merit and all about fairness. I am here on behalf of all working people to demand that this process have all those things: democracy, transparency, a focus on merit, and fairness.

Today I want to focus on why working families in this Commonwealth support Destination Resort Casinos. Let me be clear: The Massachusetts AFL-CIO and labor unions in this Commonwealth do not support casinos for casinos sake. We support quality, high road economic development. That is what these Destination Resort Casinos have the potential to be.

Massachusetts is in dire need of job creation. Not just any job creation, but quality job creation. Everyone knows the stories and the patterns of people leaving this state in droves. Everyone knows the statistics of the worsening job market and the downturn in the economy. We need to create jobs with which people can raise families so that people can afford to stay in this Commonwealth. We need jobs with family-sustaining wages and benefits, with health care and pensions and retirement security so that working people can attain the quality of life they deserve. The construction and permanent jobs that will result from Destination Resort Casinos are essential to the families of this Commonwealth.

Frankly, we cannot pass up this opportunity to create these kinds of jobs. Where else are we going to find such substantial job creation? And where else are we going to create jobs with such incredible potential to be good jobs? I have heard few other ideas that have this much potential for the economy in Massachusetts.

We're talking about estimates of nearly 20,000 permanent jobs in the Destination Resort Casinos, as well as estimates of thousands upon thousands of construction jobs for the build-out. Not to mention the fact that the potential for the creation of indirect jobs in the areas surrounding the Destination Resort Casinos is immeasurable.

I know there has been a lot of back and forth over the specific jobs and revenue projections, but what's important is this: If you're an unemployed worker one good job is enough for you and your family. What is important is that if done right this legislation will undoubtedly create substantial amounts of family-sustaining jobs. How many paychecks will workers in this Commonwealth have to miss? How many creditors will have to come calling? How many foreclosures will working families have to endure before this legislature and this Governor finally work together to take pro-active steps to create the kinds of jobs we need? We are asking you to give us a chance. By cutting short this debate and shutting down this bill you would be ignoring our calls for you to help us achieve the quality of life we deserve.

Working families in this Commonwealth are yearning for our elected officials to stop the political back and forth. The "he said, we said" is getting tiresome. It does not matter to working families, to your constituents, whose idea it was to create Destination Resort Casinos. All we care about is that, if done right, the benefits of Destination Resort Casinos far outweigh any drawbacks. We worked hard to overwhelmingly elect a Governor who would listen to working people, who would care about our needs and concerns and pay attention to us as much as the past four Governors ignored us. We have worked hard to elect a pro-worker legislature over the years. We have worked closely together with this legislature to protect working families in this Commonwealth for decades. It is profoundly disappointing to us that our elected officials seem so willing to waste the opportunities we fought for over a silly political tit-for-tat.

Legislators and the Administration must work together because that's what we elected you to do. We elected you to work together to give us a chance at a decent quality of life. A laid-off worker, or a struggling worker, does not care about the political back and forth when they pick up the paper. They see these articles about the legislature and the Governor being unable to come together on this issue that clearly creates good jobs, they shake their heads in disappointment, feel ignored, and skip right to the Classifieds to try to find a job so they can support their family.

I can't believe we're even having a debate about whether or not we should create Destination Resort Casinos. We should be having a debate on how we go about making sure Destination Resort Casinos actually deliver the many benefits they have the potential to deliver. To be clear the Massachusetts AFL-CIO is only supportive of Destination Resort Casinos in as much as the proposals will create good jobs for the Commonwealth's families. We are supremely confident in the quality of jobs that will result from Destination Resort Casinos. We ought not be elitist about what is or is not a good job. We only get good jobs if we demand them and strategically create them. A job that pays a decent salary, with health care and retirement security benefits, with career ladders and workforce training programs is a good job.

The plain truth is that we are not creating the jobs that working people in this Commonwealth need. Six in ten adults in Massachusetts do not have a four-year college degree. For these workers Destination Resort Casinos offer hope to earn a decent living. Life sciences and biotech and renewable energy and other high tech initiatives taken on by this Administration and this legislature will only go so far in providing working people the kinds of jobs they need. We must have jobs for working people like the manufacturing jobs we've lost in droves; jobs where you can still support a family even if you didn't have the opportunity to graduate from college. We must have jobs where people who are not able to avail themselves of these higher-tech industries can still support their family. Destination Resort Casinos create these kinds of jobs.

Additionally, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO is supportive of Destination Resort Casinos as long as we demand that the license holders live up to the very highest standards. We want responsible employers to be awarded licenses for Destination Resort Casinos. The ability to operate Destination Resort Casinos should only be given to the very best kinds of employers and corporate citizens. Because the Commonwealth would be awarding license holders a tremendous opportunity to make a profit we have the right and responsibility to demand the most from these businesses. I urge the legislature and the Governor to demand the very most from those who wish to hold licenses for Destination Resort Casinos. These are the kinds of provisions that can be put into legislation to ensure that this is high quality economic development.

Last November, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO sent a memo to the Governor and the General Court entitled "Betting on the High Road: Economic Development Accountability and Gaming in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." In it we detailed what we consider to be necessities for Destination Resort Casinos to fully contribute more than their fair share to the families of this Commonwealth. The Massachusetts AFL-CIO believes that the Governor and this General Court have the power to structure Destination Resort Casinos in such a way that high quality jobs will be a near-certainty.

We ask that Destination Resort Casinos require Project Labor Agreements, Job Quality Standards that are worthy of our families, Responsible Procurement Policies, privately-financed workforce development training funds provided by the license holders, as well as neutrality by the employer towards the workers' choice to unionize, and a seat at the table for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO on any boards that are created in this legislation.

In addition to job creation that we cannot allow to pass us by, the potential for public revenues is also too substantial to pass up. There are estimates upwards of hundreds of millions in additional annual revenues that could be created by Destination Resort Casinos.

While there may be enthusiastic debates about how and where to dedicate these additional revenues, we cannot get to that debate unless we first support the establishment of Destination Resort Casinos. I, for one, want to have that debate about what our priorities should be for the added revenues we will create with Destination Resort Casinos. Again, we can't have that debate if this Committee puts the brakes on this legislation today or tomorrow or even the next day.

Our roads and bridges and other forms of transportation and infrastructure are in dire need of more funding.

Our schools need more investments to give our children the education they need to succeed in this ever-changing economy.

Our public employees need additional revenues to ensure that they get the health care and pensions and wages they deserve for the hard work they do for all of us.

There is plenty of time to debate where the money should go. What there is not is a question of whether or not we need the money.

There is no question that this Commonwealth has many needs and I urge the legislature to join the Governor in making the strategic, correct decision to create Destination Resort Casinos in order to create good jobs, grow our economy, and add much-needed public revenues to our state coffers.

This is the kind of investment and economic development that the Massachusetts AFL-CIO can enthusiastically support. These Destination Resort Casinos represent new jobs, new revenues, and new opportunities for this Commonwealth. I urge you to let this debate continue. Do not ignore our will. Please give working families the dignity we deserve as your constituents by giving us the opportunity to convince you and your colleagues of the benefits of Destination Resort Casinos. Let us convince this legislature that Destination Resort Casinos will create good, family-sustaining jobs by the tens of thousands, and new public revenues by the hundreds of millions. Let us convince you of how hungry we are for help, for a chance, for a future here in this Commonwealth for working people.

Report this proposal out favorably; allow this debate to continue; and give working families a chance at the quality of life we deserve in Massachusetts.

Thank you.