Foxwoods To Lay Off 700 Employees
After hiring thousands of new workers for the opening of its MGM Grand expansion, Foxwoods Resort Casino said Tuesday that it will lay off 700 employees in the next few weeks, about 6 percent of its workforce.
"It's an across-the-board reduction. It's not focusing on any specific department," said Lori Potter, spokeswoman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns and operates Foxwoods.
Potter said it's not yet known how many workers will be affected at the original casino and how many at the new MGM Grand resort and casino.
Foxwoods employs about 9,000 and the MGM Grand, which opened in May, about 2,000, Potter said.
Affected workers will be notified by Oct. 17, Potter said.
Tribal officials said the nation's economic downturn, which has adversely affected the gaming industry, is to blame for the layoffs.
"Revenues have been fluctuating since the summer, but there was a significant drop in September," Potter said.
Tribal Council Chairman Michael Thomas said in a statement Tuesday that the "recession's impact can now be clearly seen in our industry. Unfortunately, the time has arrived when we must face the difficult decision and align our payroll costs with current revenue levels."
The opening of the $700 million MGM Grand at Foxwoods created more than 2,000 jobs, but 200 employees at the original casino were laid off at the end of June, Potter said.
Asked about future layoffs, Potter said: "The state of the economy is unpredictable and unprecedented, so we can't predict what our future needs might be at this time."
Officials at the United Auto Workers, which has won the right to represent Foxwoods table game dealers, declined to comment on the layoffs Tuesday.
Edward J. Deak, an economics professor at Fairfield University, described the casino layoffs as just another "sign of the times," that the poor economy is hurting everyone.
Connecticut's casinos have been especially strained as high gas prices keep consumers at home, a foundering economy forces them to cut discretionary spending and slot machines popping up in other states offer them new and closer alternatives.
"All of this is cutting into the need to go all the way to Connecticut to get your slot machine fix," Deak said. "I love to shoot craps, but I haven't been [to Foxwoods] for over a year."
Foxwoods' decision to open MGM Grand in May and recruit 2,000 employees for the expansion probably didn't help either, he said.
"Typically what happens is, when casinos are doing well, they're doing very well. And then they get overly expansion-oriented," he said, "and if the expansion comes online at a time when the economy goes south, it's no longer as profitable as they thought it to be."
The economic downturn also put the brakes on a planned four-year $925 million expansion at the Mohegan Sun casino, Foxwoods' rival.
The Mohegan tribe announced last week that it would delay construction of the largest phase of the casino's expansion.
Declining slot machine revenue, nervous consumers, tight credit markets and huge construction costs led the Mohegan tribe to suspend the final and most expensive phase of the expansion, costing about $735 million.
"It's an across-the-board reduction. It's not focusing on any specific department," said Lori Potter, spokeswoman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns and operates Foxwoods.
Potter said it's not yet known how many workers will be affected at the original casino and how many at the new MGM Grand resort and casino.
Foxwoods employs about 9,000 and the MGM Grand, which opened in May, about 2,000, Potter said.
Affected workers will be notified by Oct. 17, Potter said.
Tribal officials said the nation's economic downturn, which has adversely affected the gaming industry, is to blame for the layoffs.
"Revenues have been fluctuating since the summer, but there was a significant drop in September," Potter said.
Tribal Council Chairman Michael Thomas said in a statement Tuesday that the "recession's impact can now be clearly seen in our industry. Unfortunately, the time has arrived when we must face the difficult decision and align our payroll costs with current revenue levels."
The opening of the $700 million MGM Grand at Foxwoods created more than 2,000 jobs, but 200 employees at the original casino were laid off at the end of June, Potter said.
Asked about future layoffs, Potter said: "The state of the economy is unpredictable and unprecedented, so we can't predict what our future needs might be at this time."
Officials at the United Auto Workers, which has won the right to represent Foxwoods table game dealers, declined to comment on the layoffs Tuesday.
Edward J. Deak, an economics professor at Fairfield University, described the casino layoffs as just another "sign of the times," that the poor economy is hurting everyone.
Connecticut's casinos have been especially strained as high gas prices keep consumers at home, a foundering economy forces them to cut discretionary spending and slot machines popping up in other states offer them new and closer alternatives.
"All of this is cutting into the need to go all the way to Connecticut to get your slot machine fix," Deak said. "I love to shoot craps, but I haven't been [to Foxwoods] for over a year."
Foxwoods' decision to open MGM Grand in May and recruit 2,000 employees for the expansion probably didn't help either, he said.
"Typically what happens is, when casinos are doing well, they're doing very well. And then they get overly expansion-oriented," he said, "and if the expansion comes online at a time when the economy goes south, it's no longer as profitable as they thought it to be."
The economic downturn also put the brakes on a planned four-year $925 million expansion at the Mohegan Sun casino, Foxwoods' rival.
The Mohegan tribe announced last week that it would delay construction of the largest phase of the casino's expansion.
Declining slot machine revenue, nervous consumers, tight credit markets and huge construction costs led the Mohegan tribe to suspend the final and most expensive phase of the expansion, costing about $735 million.
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