From the Morning Sun (H/T Sharon):
The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe has repealed the law that essentially outlawed unions among Tribal employees.
“The Tribal Council took this step because it found that it was in the best interests of the Tribe to withdraw its ordinance to accommodate other important interests and relationships,” according to a statement issued by the Tribal Council. “It also makes no sense to engage in expensive litigation over the ordinance when our employees have shown no interest in a union.”
The Tribe agreed to repeal its labor law after Teamsters Local 486, which has been attempting to organize employees of the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, filed an unfair labor practice charge against the Tribe. The Teamsters charged that the Tribal law itself was an unfair labor practice.
A hearing had been set for earlier this month on the charge, but the Tribe and the Teamsters settled before the National Labor Relations Board could issue a ruling.
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“We got 99 percent of what we wanted,” said Ed Morin, Local 486 business agent.
The Tribe has continued to argue in legal briefs that the NLRB has no jurisdiction over the Tribe, but has allowed an NLRB-run election to take place at the casino, and settled this charge.
“The Tribe continues to disagree with the position of the National
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Labor Relations Board that tribal casinos fall within the jurisdiction of the NLRB,” the Tribal Council’s statement said. “The repeal of the Tribe’s ordinance does not change the Tribe’s position in that regard.
“It is the Tribe’s continued position that as sovereign governments,” the statement said, “Indian tribes are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act.”
Late last year, the Teamsters union lost a representation vote among housekeepers after a campaign by the employer. A second representation election, organized by a security union, was withdrawn after the union obtained the names and addresses of all the members of the potential bargaining unit.
Under federal labor law, an employer must turn over the names and addresses of all the members of a proposed bargaining unit to a union before an election. That allows the union to ensure that people who are supposed to vote in the representation election can vote, and people who aren’t supposed to vote don’t vote.
At the time, Tribal general counsel Sean Reed said if the security election had actually gone forward, the union likely would have lost that, too. Union leaders later admitted they had signed cards from just 35 percent of the members of the bargaining unit, and called the election primarily to get the names of the other members.
Both Teamsters and security union leaders say they won’t give up.
The United Auto Workers successfully organized workers at the Tribal-owned Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Conn., owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. Morin said the Soaring Eagle is the first on-reservation, Native-owned casino the Teamsters has attempted to organize.
The Teamsters represent commercial casino workers in Las Vegas and Mississippi, and are part of the coalition of unions representing workers at the three commercial casinos in Detroit.
Turtle Talk 