Employees of any business expect to have access to certain benefits during their employment, including health insurance. The Twin River Casino may soon be subjected to a strike if employees go ahead with their protest due to recent cuts to their healthcare plans.

Represented by Unite Here! Local 26, more than 200 Twin River Casino employees in the food and beverage industry were on hand Tuesday to rally at the Rhode Island State House to protest changes to their healthcare plans.

Jenna Karlin is the Unite Here! Local 26 Providence Office Vice President who commented on the potential strike stating that the Twin River Casino cut the health care coverage of employees on the 1st of January. With the new plan, employees would have to pay over $100,000 more for the same services they were able to receive in 2016. This is more than triple in out of pocket costs for employees. At the same time, according to rifuture.org, Karlin pointed out that Twin River has been able to see gaming revenues increase more than 50% within the past seven years to more than $225 million. This past December, investors were paid $20 million in stock buyback by the holding company of Twin River.

Scott Slater is a representative of Rhode Island who pointed out that gambling is the third largest source of revenue for the state and the Twin River Casino plays a big part in the revenues earned. The General Assembly actually granted the owners of the venue major concessions since they promised to offer jobs with quality earnings for employees. Slater provided his support for the employees during the crowd of individuals at the State House along with Representative Aaron Regunberg, William O’Brien, Shelby Maldonado and Grace Diaz.