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“Right to Work Colonies” in California Tribal Casino Compacts to Be Voted on Monday in Assembly
By Rafael Espita
Former Morongo Casino Employee
As you read this article, the California Assembly is on the verge of creating Right to Work Colonies for thousands of workers employed in California tribal casinos. The Senate already ratified one treaty with a rich casino tribe that will nearly triple the tribe’s allowed slots and allow them three casinos.
Wednesday’s Riverside Press Enterprise carried a story about another tribe whose deal would allow them to build the biggest casino in the nation, more than twice the size of the largest Las Vegas Strip casino. The Assembly has scheduled a vote for Monday, in the waning days of the session.
These compacts are bad for California workers, they do nothing for poor tribes, and they don’t protect our environment or taxpayers. The Sacramento Bee said, “These are deals that only a tribe could love. Legislature should reject it.” Click here to urge your legislators to reject this bad deal for California workers.
In contrast to most previous compacts submitted by the governor, this compact—and presumably others to come—removes from the Tribal Labor Relations Ordinance the right for tribal casino workers (who are virtually all not tribal members) to choose freely whether we want to organize a union through a card check and to establish a level playing field for our pursuit of decent wages, benefits, and working conditions.
This deal allows tribal casinos to operate without the protections guaranteed to all other workers in California. As sovereign nations, tribes reject the jurisdiction of federal labor law and prohibitions on discrimination against women or on the basis of race or religion. By leaving these things out of the state’s agreements with casino operating tribes, the Legislature is rolling back the clock on civil rights and worker rights.
I know this from firsthand experience. I worked at Morongo Casino in southern California for eight years as a tram driver. I am a grandfather of 12 children. I am the only wage-earner for my household. I support my wife, who is disabled from a knee injury, my daughter, and two grandchildren, all of whom live in my home.
One day, I was injured while doing my job at Morongo Casino. My manager sent me to a doctor who told me I would need surgery for my rotator cup. The Casino immediately sent me home, and two days later they called me to come pick up my last check. I was fired. I thought I could hire a lawyer or something, but nobody, not a single lawyer wants to take a case against the Tribe. The casino denied me workers’ comp, so I had to go on State Disability for one year, and my doctor says I am permanently disabled. I still have a lot of pain because of this injury. The Morongo Casino cut my health insurance, so I had to put my daughter and her grandchildren on welfare. Morongo even tried to force me to pay for the doctor they sent me to. They sent me to collections for $196.
It is incomprehensible how California could, in a period of less than three weeks, enact new tribal gaming compacts that will create the largest expansion of gaming in American history. Click here to urge your legislators to reject this bad deal for California workers.
Comments
The governor’s compact with the Agua Caliente is a massive gaming expansion deal that leaves all of the rest of us out in the cold. It’s crazy to nearly triple the size of casinos without any local public input!
The deal doesn’t require casinos to pay a living wage or provide affordable health insurance.
Just two years ago, voters rejected a similar gaming expansion proposal (Prop 70) by a three to one margin. Now, the Legislature wants to rush the Governor’s deal through in two weeks.
It's ironic that our Democratically controlled legislature would think of supporting Jack Abramoff's only California tribe, especially when labor opposes it.
We need to stop this election-year giveaway to the State’s richest tribes.
Posted by: Dana Wise at August 25, 2006 03:50 PM
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