SAN DIEGO—For two-dozen people in a seminar room at the San Diego Convention Center, Monday afternoon was part pep rally, part strategy session with a dash of history instruction, legal lesson and psychological tutoring all crammed into one short-order course.
Union organizing was the topic, and "watch out!" were the watchwords.
The formal title at the National Indian Gaming Association workshop seemed like a graduate seminar, complete with course number - "Tribal Labor Relations I: Dealing with Union Organizing on Tribal Lands."
But the subject was anything but academic to the audience of tribal leaders, casino managers, hotel operators, food and beverage directors, gaming executives and other attendees at NIGA's annual meeting.
And the group listened intently to speakers from the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe and its Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort as well as a pair of consultants who helped the tribe turn back an organizing bid by Teamsters trying to unionize hospitality workers at the Michigan casino.
"The unions are still testing the waters of Indian Country," said Michele Stanley, a member of the Saginaw Chippewa tribal council who was at the forefront of the labor-management battle. "They're still learning how to deal with Indian Country."
A month before the Saginaw Chippewa balloting, dealers at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut voted to join the United Auto Workers Union. Foxwoods is owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, and the UAW had worked for six months to form a union.
Phillip B. Wilson, president of the Labor Relations Institute which assisted the Saginaw Chippewa in their anti-union campaign, told the workshop gathering that the movement to organize casino workers on tribal lands is only beginning.
"The unions know your vulnerabilities," he said, citing the public nature of casinos and the large sums of money they attract among other attributes. "They know that of all the industries, you're among the ones they want the most."
So what should tribal governments and casino operators do?
Wilson had his own checklist of suggestions to challenge labor organizers, ranging from educating tribal leadership on the impact of unions and making sure you "know your enemy" to revamping your hiring process and engaging in a "guerilla" legal strategy to fight off a union bid.
In Michigan at the Saginaw Chippewa-owned resort and casino, the housekeeping staff voted 192-88 against unionization last December. But the casino's 3,000 workers could remain the target of union recruiting, and security guards had even initiated a petition drive that they dropped after the housekeepers' vote.
The Teamsters have not abandoned their hopes of representing casino workers. Ed Morin, business agent for Teamsters Local 486 in Saginaw, could not be reached for comment. But the union's Web site includes a message announcing the local has formed a coalition with two other union locals "in an effort to better service the employees at the Casino."
Meanwhile, the experience with the union has underscored what tribal council member Michele Stanley said is the most important attribute in dealing with casino employees. "Communication is the key," she told her audience.
In his prepared statement to the entire conference, NIGA chairman Ernest L. Stevens Jr. lamented the rift with unions and said the increase in union activity at reservation facilities comes at a time when tribes "are just now generating enough resources to address decades of neglect and poverty."
Stevens added that "it saddens me that tribes have to battle with union organizations that have been instrumental in securing worker rights."
As for the overall state of Indian gaming, Stevens noted that "over the past eight years, we've seen an unprecedented growth in our tribal economies across the nation."
He credited Indian gaming for rebuilding Native communities and, in his prepared statement to the group, Stevens said Indian gaming now provides more than 700,000 jobs, many of them going to non-Natives. He said that gaming has also generated $26.5 billion in gross revenues.