Projo Biz Blog

The tribe that runs the Foxwoods Resort Casino today refused a union's request to negotiate a contract on behalf of nearly 3,000 poker and table-game dealers.

The letter sent to the United Auto Workers is the latest development in what is expected to be lengthy legal fight over unionization efforts at the casino in Ledyard, Conn., which is owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe.

Last November, dealers at Foxwoods voted in favor of unionization, a decision the tribe refuses to recognize. The National labor Relations Board issued a ruling June 30 certifying the results.

The Mashantucket Pequots say the NLRB does not have jurisdiction to administer union elections on tribal land and has urged the UAW to unionize Foxwoods' dealers under tribal labor laws.

"We know that you disagree with the Tribal Nation's position on jurisdiction," wrote Jackson T. King Jr., the tribe's general counsel in a letter to Julie Kushner, assistant director of the UAW regional office responsible for Connecticut. "Nevertheless, we trust that the UAW, as an organization publicly committed to civil liberties, will understand and respect the Tribal Nation's need to seek legal redress when it feels its fundamental rights are being trampled."

The tribe is seeking a judicial review of the unionization effort in the U.S. Court of Appeals, an effort that could result in a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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