Fuming over setback to casino smoking ban, workers light up in New Jersey Statehouse meeting
Workers angry that a proposed smoking ban in Atlantic City's casinos seems to be going nowhere protested by lighting up during a state government hearing Thursday in Trenton
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — With prospects for a smoking ban in Atlantic City's casinos looking hazier than ever, workers who want smoking banned took matters into their own hands, lips and lungs Thursday.
Members of the United Auto Workers union disrupted a meeting of a state Assembly committee that had been scheduled to take a preliminary vote on a bill to ban smoking in the casinos by lighting cigarettes and blowing smoke toward legislators.
That vote was canceled Wednesday night when one of the main champions of workers who want smoking banned in the gambling halls gave up on a bill that would end smoking in the nine casinos, and embraced some measures the casino industry wants, including enclosed smoking rooms.
That had some employees burning mad — literally.
