Teamsters seek to organize 430 Indian casino workers

Carolyn Thompson

Monday, Dec. 6, 2004 | 9:07 a.m.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Teamsters are moving to unionize 430 card dealers at the Indian-owned Seneca Niagara Casino, saying a labor board ruling earlier this year opened the door to a vote.

The National Labor Relations Board has scheduled a hearing for Dec. 10 on a petition by Teamsters Local 375 to hold a union election.

The board, with a ruling in a California case in May, ended a long-standing precedent that excluded American Indian employers from federal labor law.

In Niagara Falls, the vote initially would affect 430 card dealers, although others among the more than 2,000 casino employees have expressed interest in unionizing, said Gerald Hay Jr., secretary-treasurer of Local 375 in Buffalo.

Dealers say higher pay is at the top of their priorities, but complain of unequal treatment among Seneca and non-Seneca employees and a system they say punishes workers for using earned sick days.

Dealers are paid about $4 an hour and earn an additional $10 an hour in tips, compared to the $11.81 their counterparts just across the border at Canadian casinos earn, and the $9.31 that dealers at a similar Detroit casino are paid, according to the union.

More than half of the card dealers -- Senecas and non-Senecas -- supported the idea of unionizing in a poll last month, the union said.

Calls to Seneca Gaming Corp. President Mickey Brown were not immediately returned Friday and a spokeswoman referred reporters to a corporation lawyer, who declined to comment. The corporation operates the 2-year-old Niagara Falls casino and a recently opened casino in Salamanca, south of Buffalo, for the tribe. A call to the Seneca Nation president's office was not returned.

"Their fight isn't with the Seneca Nation," Hay said of the dealers. "The gaming corporation is a totally different arm of the nation."

The NLRB's May decision involved a dispute between the San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, which is attempting to organize casino workers throughout the country.

"When Indian tribes participate in the national economy in commercial enterprises, when they employ substantial numbers of non-Indians, and when their businesses cater to non-Indian clients and customers, the tribes affect interstate commerce in a significant way," the ruling said.

"When the Indian tribes act in this manner, the special attributes of their sovereignty are not implicated," it continued. "Running a commercial business is not an expression of sovereignty in the same way that running a tribal court system is."

The ruling is expected to have implications at numerous Indian-owned casinos around the country.

Unions sought to have organizing rights written into the agreement between New York state and the Seneca Indian Nation that allowed the tribe to open up to three casinos in western New York, but the final agreement did not include them.