Patricia Daddona of The Day has details:
Dealers voted in the United Auto Workers union at Foxwoods Resort Casino Saturday by a vote of 1,289 to 852, but the fight — tense for some, enthralling for others — isn’t over yet.
In a historic election expected to bring in organized labor for the first time at one of the world’s largest Indian-owned casinos, dealers cast a total of 2,177 ballots, but 36 were challenged by the union or the company and thrown out. The overall vote was 60 percent in favor of the UAW.
Sadly this is far from over. Foxwoods has made it clear that they intend to continue the fight to keep UAW out.
Despite the win by the UAW, Foxwoods President John O’Brien said this morning that the company and its owners, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, would examine all their options, including a legal fight, before letting the UAW in the door.
“We are disappointed with the preliminary tally, however, these results will not be official until all legal issues, including jurisdiction, are resolved,” O’Brien in a statement. “We continue to believe as we have from the very beginning that the labor board lacked jurisdiction and that any election should have been governed by tribal laws.
“We have made our position clear to the NLRB and will continue to do so in the future.”
Last month Senator Dodd, and Reps. Courtney, Shays, Murphy, De Lauro, and Larson all signed a letter supporting the formation of a union. (pop quiz: whose name is missing?)
The Foxwoods dealers are the first casino workers in Connecticut to unionize. I suspect they won’t be the last. Expect to see subsequent efforts to organize more workers at both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.
Sources.
Daddona, Patricia. “Foxwoods Dealers OK Union“. The Day. 11/25/07
Peters, Mark. “Foxwoods Dealers Vote to Unionize“. Hartford Courant. 11/25/07
3 responses so far ↓
Sadly this is far from over. Foxwoods has made it clear that they intend to continue the fight to keep UAW out.
CGG isn’t it their right to fight this or should they just submit?
It only a matter of time before the casinos are forced to ban smoking due to union thugs claiming unhealthy work conditions.
It’s one of the few places in CT you can have a cigar in public.
The UAW has been wonderful for Michigan, so let’s please get them heavily involved in Connecticut! Not!
>>It only a matter of time before the casinos are forced to ban smoking due to union thugs claiming unhealthy work conditions.
It’s one of the few places in CT you can have a cigar in public
Yup!
Las Vegas banned smoking except on the Casino floors last year. That pleased management in my company not a lot so they investigated holding our annual meeting elsewhere.
Seems an all inclusive in Cancun, where there’s an ashtray every 3 feet or so is saving the corporation around 250K. It won’t be long before that word gets around the Fortune 500 crowd; in fact I guess it already did seeing as while we are there taking a mere 500 rooms or so some other American firm is coming in and taking 800 while yet another is taking 1400 - and this is all at one resort.
Had Vegas not banned smoking we would have never even looked around.
We had been treated pretty well by the firm we had used for the past 10 years and had no other reason to shop elsewhere.
Those that labor under the delusion that smoking bans don’t hurt business are clearly mistaken.
I won’t be posting much for 1st two weeks in December; I will however be smoking Cuban cigars (we make those too, my employer is not an American company) and drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee (which I shipped down ahead yesterday).
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