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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Dealers at the Foxwoods Resort Casino called on management Friday to begin contract negotiations after the National Labor Relations Board certified their union.
The NLRB, in a 2-0 decision issued on June 30, affirmed a March ruling by Administrative Law Judge Raymond Green certifying the results of the union representation election at Foxwoods. Casino dealers at Foxwoods voted to join the UAW in November 2007.
``Workers have spoken, the Labor Board has ruled, and it's time for Foxwoods to obey the law and bargain a contract,'' said UAW Secretary Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn. ``Casino dealers formed their own union because they have concerns about wages, tips, benefits, working conditions, and other issues that can and should be resolved at the bargaining table.''
But the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, which owns the casino, said it plans to appeal all aspects of the case to United States Court of Appeals.
Green concluded that Foxwoods did not prove union organizers intimidated casino workers to get them to vote in favor of joining the UAW. Green threw out Foxwoods' complaint to the National Labor Relations Board's regional office and ordered the election results certified.
Foxwoods, one of the world's largest casinos in southeastern Connecticut, filed a complaint after dealers voted 1,289 to 852 in favor of unionizing. The UAW represents more than 8,800 casino workers in Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
Tribal officials had argued that the tribe and Foxwoods were not subject to the labor board's jurisdiction, but a federal court ruled in February that federal labor law applies to Indian tribes and their gambling businesses.
``Mashantucket Pequot laws provide a fair process for employees to select union representation if they so desire,'' said Jackson King, general counsel for the tribe. ``We continue to believe that tribal law should apply in these matters. The union could already have a contract by now if they had followed tribal law.''
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