October 12, 2000

Disgruntled Prairie Meadows employees distribute flyers to casino patrons

Deniece Wilson
digital•iowa staff reporter
Drake University

ALTOONA, Iowa -- Prairie Meadows, a place where central Iowans come to enjoy a day of horse racing or try their luck at the casino machines, was invaded by disgruntled employees distributing pink flyers to patrons earlier this week.

AFSCME Iowa Council 61, the union responsible for the distribution of these flyers, claimed that the Prairie Meadows management eliminated the employee shift system, which makes it difficult for the employees to have a family life. The union also complained that management increased the employees' workload without equally increasing their salary, and seasoned employees were passed over for promotions by new employees or relatives of managers.

Daryl Lewis, community relations executive for Prairie Meadows, said the organization made the changes in the employees' schedule to facilitate the flow of customers into the casino.

"We often had problems where our patrons would need service and there were not enough workers, or at other shifts there were too many workers and not enough work," Lewis said. "This was the reasoning behind the changes in their (employees') working schedule."

Lewis said she was saddened to learn that the employees had resorted to such action. "It was disheartening to learn that the employees would distribute flyers to our patrons," Lewis said. "At present, we are in deep negotiations and barraging our patrons with this information is quite unsettling."

AFSCME, which represents the 204 Prairie Meadows employees, could not be reached for comment. AFSCME union members include employees in food service, slot machine attendants, cashiers, and maintenance sectors of the casino.

Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona is directly managed and operated by a not-for-profit corporation - the Racing Association of Central Iowa. Unlike other Iowa gaming enterprises that are operated by publicly held, for-profit management companies, RACI functions as a non-profit organization, which means that it is not state-owned and all profits after expenses are reinvested into the Iowa community.

From 1995 to 1999, Lewis said Prairie Meadows provided millions of dollars to the state. It donated $535,775 to arts and beautification projects, $6 million to community affairs projects, $4.5 million to human services projects, $500,000 to education programs, and $106.5 million to community betterment programs.

Prairie Meadows has 1,400 employees and boasts that 96 percent of all the materials used at Prairie Meadows is Iowa made. For the past two years, Prairie Meadows has also been voted the No. 1 tourist attraction by the Iowa State Division of Tourism.

Lewis said Prairie Meadows wants to address the concerns of the employees but not at the expense of the patrons.

"Prairie Meadows aims to be a customer-service oriented organization, and if there are disgruntled workers, this would remove the focus off of customer service," Lewis said. "We are meeting with the unions and would hope to quickly come to an agreement that would benefit all parties."