Tip Generously: Casino Workers Take On Initiative Process
A group representing tip-earning casino workers in Nevada earlier this year filed a statewide initiative to bar casinos from forcing them to pool their tips and share them with supervisors. Then they got a lesson in direct democracy. Their initiative, and 11 others, were challenged by opponents and successfully knocked off the ballot.
Now the union-backed group, PEST (Committee to Prevent Employees From Seizing Tips") has gone to court, filing a lawsuit that claims the state's rules on ballot initiatives are unconstitutional. If this suit gets any traction, it will be worth watching because casino workers are challenging everything -- the single subject rule, the requirements for title and summary, and the ability of opposition groups to challenge a measure before signatures are filed.


