{"id":80782,"date":"2026-02-17T19:01:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/?p=80782"},"modified":"2026-02-17T19:01:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:01:51","slug":"no-happy-lunar-new-year-at-crown-casino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/media-release\/no-happy-lunar-new-year-at-crown-casino\/","title":{"rendered":"NO HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR AT CROWN CASINO"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

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Press Conference: Workers at Crown Melbourne are\u00a0<\/span>on strike for 24 hours\u00a0<\/span>on\u00a0<\/span>Lunar New Year.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Who<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

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Andrew Jones, Director of Casinos and Clubs, United Workers Union Crown Melbourne delegates and members<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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When<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n

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Tuesday 17 February 2026<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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11.45am \u2013 Speakers arrive at RP2\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12.00 noon \u2013 Media conference\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12.30pm \u2013 Event concludes<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

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Patrons at Melbourne\u2019s Crown Casino are facing serious disruptions to\u00a0<\/span>Lunar<\/span>\u00a0New Year celebrations today<\/span>, with workers walking off the job from midnight last night\u00a0<\/span>(EDS: Monday)\u00a0<\/span>for 24 hours.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The strike \u2013 which follows a strike\u00a0<\/span>at Crown\u00a0<\/span>on New Year\u2019s Eve and a strike on Valentine\u2019s Day \u2013 will affect operations across all areas of the casino, including table games, security,\u00a0<\/span>catering<\/span>\u00a0and cleaning services.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Thousands of union members are\u00a0<\/span>taking action<\/span>\u00a0after Crown\u2019s failure to put a reasonable pay offer on the table, a month after 89 per cent of Crown\u2019s workers voted down a divisive and unfair two-tier pay offer.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The pay offer put by Crown in December would have seen new workers\u00a0<\/span>paid up to 32 per cent less for doing the same work.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cCrown still hasn\u2019t got the memo, despite workers voting against their deal, and taking repeated actions to\u00a0<\/span>support<\/span>\u00a0their demands for a fair offer,\u201d Andrew Jones, Director of Casinos, said today.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf Crown<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>is serious about offering patrons\u00a0<\/span>a good time<\/span>, they need to start treating their staff with respect \u2013 and that starts with a reasonable pay offer.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cCrown depends on the<\/span>se<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>skilled\u00a0<\/span>workers\u00a0<\/span>to\u00a0<\/span>offer the services that have made Crown one of the biggest\u00a0<\/span>entertainment\u00a0<\/span>drawcards in Australia.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201c<\/span>As patrons\u00a0<\/span>of Crown\u00a0<\/span>during\u00a0<\/span>Lunar<\/span>\u00a0New Year will find out,\u00a0<\/span>it\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0hard to have\u00a0<\/span>a good time<\/span>\u00a0when those staff\u00a0<\/span>aren\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0around.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cT<\/span>h<\/span>e<\/span>se workers\u00a0<\/span>are not going to stand for Crown\u00a0<\/span>dragging out negotiations and\u00a0<\/span>failing to show<\/span>\u00a0them the respect they deserve<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Crown is hosting and sponsoring a summit about the future of Victoria, while at the same time pursuing plans that would cut wages and offshore secure local jobs.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“That\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0not the future Victorian workers want. If Crown wants to be seen as part of Victoria\u2019s future, it should be sitting down with its workforce and resolving this dispute.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We expect the Prime Minister, the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition to make it clear that Victoria\u2019s future must include secure jobs, fair\u00a0<\/span>wages<\/span>\u00a0and respect for local workers.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It would be difficult for political leaders to\u00a0<\/span>publicly support<\/span>\u00a0an event about Victoria\u2019s future if Crown is not\u00a0<\/span>demonstrating<\/span>\u00a0that same commitment to its workforce.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We are urging Crown to resolve this dispute before the Future Victoria Summit on February 25 so that the focus can genuinely be on building a strong future for Victorian workers and communities.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u00a0 Press Conference: Workers at Crown Melbourne are\u00a0on strike for 24 hours\u00a0on\u00a0Lunar New Year.\u00a0 Who\u00a0 Andrew Jones, Director of Casinos and Clubs, United Workers Union Crown Melbourne delegates and members\u00a0 When\u00a0 Tuesday 17…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":76929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[235,50,132],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-80782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casinos","category-media-release","category-strike-stories","tag-casino"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80782"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81915,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80782\/revisions\/81915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}