Casino stalemate hurting local workers

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A Rhode Island union leader is urging Massachusetts lawmakers to agree on a casino bill, for the good of the economy.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts legislature reached a stalemate last weekend, when the governor rejected lawmakers' bill which called for three resort casinos, as well as two slot parlors at existing race tracks. Instead, Governor Patrick sent back his own proposal, which still calls for three casinos, but only one so-called "racino."

The disagreement leaves plans for a Fall River casino in limbo.  That does not sit will with Bill DeMello, President of East Providence-based Local 51, which represents plumbers, pipefitters, and refrigeration workers.

"It's going to put Fall River back to work, it's going to put all my local union members back to work."

DeMello says thirty-percent of his union members are currently unemployed. 

"We've got some members that have been out of work two years, we have members losing their house, it's breaking up families," says DeMello. 

"These guys need to go to work, they need to go to work now."

Now he's urging the Massachusetts governor and the legislature to reach a compromise, for the good of the state.

"I'll put it this way, the governor said would sign a bill that had three casinos and one slot parlor.  I believe that the speaker should come back with three casinos and one slot parlor."