The employees of the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut took a gamble. After being denied the ability to have an honest vote for union representation, the workers, including bartenders and beverage servers, appealed to the NLRB and had their first official election last Saturday.
The owners of the Foxwoods Casino claimed that since the casino belongs to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, the workers should be governed by tribal laws. But in 2004 the NLRB asserted its jurisdiction over tribal businesses, after casinos were noted to be using unfair labor practices. Previously, the Foxwoods counted people who chose to abstain from union elections as “no” votes.
And the gamble? It paid off. With a final tally of 190-145, the employees voted in favor of becoming members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
“We are very happy, obviously,” said Brian Petronella, the president of the Local 371 of the union. “It is good that simple majority was recognized and the will of the people respected.”
If Foxwoods does not file objections to the election, the next step will be for the newly-unionized workers and the casino’s management to negotiate a contract to protect the employees’ rights, wages and pensions.
But this casino’s struggle won’t be the last such fight for workers’ rights. The deck of cards remains stacked against workers at Foxwoods, across Connecticut, and throughout the country. Employers need to understand that investing in their employees is good for everyone’s bottom line. Businesses should bet on their workers, instead of against them. Is that really so much of a gamble?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jason Gooljar, AmericanRightsAtWork, Working America, sethdmichaels, Briana Kerensky and others. Briana Kerensky said: New blog post! The #workers at Foxwoods #Casino took a gamble and won the right to form a #union. http://bit.ly/9StpLw #ufcw #nlrb [...]
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