Turtle Talk

There was turn of bad luck for some employees at the Odawa Casino Resort on Monday. Faulting the rising cost of gas and subsequent poor attendance, management reported that as many as 100 employees were laid off, including tribal and non-tribal members.

“We were ultimately forced to face the reality of too many employees serving too few customers,” said general manager Sean Barnard.

Although some staff members reported being caught off guard by the reductions in a series of mandatory meetings on Monday, tribal chairman Frank Ettawageshik said that he and other tribal leadership were kept abreast of the reductions.

“We knew about it all along,” he said.

Warren Petoskey, an elder with the tribe, said rumblings about layoffs started last month.

“I heard a rumor three weeks ago that this was coming,” he said. “This morning I got an e-mail that said they laid off 40 percent of their workers.”

Barnard denied reports that as many as 200 workers had lost their jobs in Monday’s cutbacks. He confirmed that 55 full-time employees had been let go, in addition to 45 part-time seasonal positions. Although those who lost their jobs were being put in contact with an official from Michigan Works! for outplacement services, Barnard would not give details on the severance package offered to them. He said specific details were “too personal” to divulge publicly.

“We’ve been reviewing our options,” said Barnard. “We did not rush into this. We’ve been working on this for some time to make the right decision.”

Ettawageshik said that there has been an ongoing process to adjust the size of the staff to meet the appropriate needs of the casino’s customers. According to Ettawageshik, the recent round of layoffs were “a continuation of that adjustment.”

Despite the layoffs, Ettawageshik confirmed the tribe was still posting profits and said there were no major financial concerns heading into the second half of the year.