Casino News

April 17 2004:

For the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, the idea is disturbing.

HERE would like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office to include a provision in the Indian gaming compacts being negotiated that requires casinos to allow labor to organize, the union's statewide communications coordinator, Rosalind Sagara, said.

Unless the Los Coyotes' gaming compact or its municipal services agreement with the City of Barstow requires the casino to allow unions, the Los Coyotes wouldn't be required to follow the labor law regarding unions because of their sovereignty.

Project spokesman Tom Shields said the developer, Detroit-based BarWest LLC, and the Los Coyotes haven't yet made any decisions on operational matters like whether to allow unions.

"It really is something that has not been discussed internally," he said. "All efforts are focused on a compact with the governor at this point. I think this is all premature at this time."

Regardless of whether workers are organized, residents "should not have any worries at all" about the fate of employees at the proposed Barstow casino, Shields said.

"We will have to pay wages and benefits that are comparable to what is being paid in Las Vegas," Shields said. "We'll have to be competitive in order to draw good-quality workers. Otherwise we would lose them to Las Vegas. Workers will have full benefits, and that usually applies to most part-time workers, too."

He said the average salary at the casino, if it is approved, will be $30,000 a year.

Shields said Marian Ilitch, one of the principal investors in BarWest, has developed three other casinos: the Motor City Casino in Detroit, which has organized workers, and two other Indian casinos in Michigan that do not have organized workers.

If Barstow does get the casino, Sagara said she hopes the Los Coyotes will be more like the Rumsey Rancheria and the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, which permits organized labor, and less like the Agua Caliente in Palm Springs, which does not permit organized labor.

Her group has a litany of complaints regarding the Agua Caliente's treatment of its workers, while the Rumsey and Lytton tribes, are "taking their workers into consideration in a way the Agua Caliente Tribe" doesn't, she said.

"If tribes who are opening casinos respect their employees and respect the communities they are a part of, I think there isn't a problem," Sagara said.

Vince Sollitto, a spokesman for the governor's office, said he can't disclose whether current compact negotiations involve discussion of unionization. He said, though, that the governor's lead gaming negotiator, Daniel Kolkey, is "seeking fairer compacts with better protections for casino patrons and their employees as well as the communities that are impacted by them."

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