August 26, 1998
VIEJAS INDIAN RESERVATION -- The Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians has signed an unprecedented agreement with the Communications Workers of America allowing the union to come in and attempt to organize hundreds of casino service employees.
It is the first agreement ever between a labor union and a California tribe.
The highly unusual move -- an employer essentially assisting a union drive -- may have as much to do with statewide politics as with labor matters, legal analysts say.
Under the "voluntary election agreement" announced yesterday by Viejas and the Los Angeles-based CWA Local 9400, the tribe will give the union names and address of employees eligible for a labor certification election.
The election would cover 250 to 400 service employees not directly involved in gambling, such as food and beverage handlers, housekeeping and maintenance workers. At least 30 percent of those employees would have to sign a card before a certification election could be held.
Several other tribes are considering similar agreements with the CWA, according to a statewide association of gaming tribes.
"This is a proud day for labor unions," Micheal Hartigan, executive vice president of the CWA union, said in a prepared statement. "Viejas showed tremendous good faith when the tribe voluntarily agreed to hold a union election."
But an official with a rival union harshly criticized the agreement.
"What we believe is the appropriate thing to happen is for workers in an Indian casino to be able to have their choice of a union, or not having a union, or a particular union," said Jack Gribbon, political director of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union. "The CWA approach is to have the employer choose. That's absurd, in our mind."
But here is where broader politics come into play: Gribbon also is co-chairman of the campaign against an Indian gaming initiative on the November ballot. His union and others oppose the measure.
Hartigan's union favors the ballot initiative, which would legalize and potentially expand the operation of video slot machines on California reservations.
"We've had a relationship with the tribes for some time due to our supporting Proposition 5," Hartigan said from his Los Angeles office. "We think that what is happening under the Wilson compact is wrong, that it puts restrictions on the tribes for expansions. We believe they should be allowed to expand, as any other industry."
Unions and union involvement are gaining increasing significance not only in the Proposition 5 debate but also in a so-called model compact that the ballot initiative seeks to supersede.
The accord, signed in March between Gov. Pete Wilson and the Pala Indian band, authorizes a new style of lottery machines, and places limits on how many of them the tribes can have.
Gribbon said his union was instrumental in getting strict labor provisions written into the Wilson-Pala compact.
Ten California gaming tribes -- including Viejas, Barona and Sycuan -- have signed similar agreements since mid-July, although many, including the San Diego-area tribes, did so under duress to avoid enforcement actions by U.S. attorneys.
Late last month, Viejas tribal members tried to remove a compact provision they considered unacceptable -- a requirement that the tribe remain neutral in union organization campaigns. A modified version of the paragraph was later reinstated.
Yesterday, Viejas tribal officials said they struck a better deal with the CWA.
"The union supported our concerns about fundamental rights of free speech and the right of our service employees to vote on whether or not to be represented by a labor union," tribal Chairman Anthony Pico said in a prepared statement.
The tribe's business adviser, John Winkelman, said the compact Viejas just signed would enable unions to organize service employees without an election.
"The union could just basically go to employees, have them sign a card and show up and represent them," he said. "We felt that giving employees the right to hold a secret ballot election, supervised, was a democratic process that we could support."
The tribe was also impressed with the CWA's pro-Indian political stance. "This group feels like a good one to work with," Winkelman said.
Attorneys specializing in labor law characterized the agreement as highly unusual.
"Usually the company wants to defeat the union in any kind of an election, so they're not going to go out and and lay out the red carpet to assist the union's organizing," said labor attorney Ken Rose.
Attorney Phillip Kossy said some companies "will try a more conciliatory approach" only when it's obvious a union drive is inevitable.
"In this case, it sounds like it's more political reasons that the tribe is picking a union that it perceives to be more Indian friendly when ultimately a deal is struck," he said. "It sounds like it's a deal whereby the union that management sees as friendly is being given access to the information and to the premises to give it a leg up in organizing toward a successful election."
Winkelman said other unions, including Gribbon's, can approach the tribe to strike similar deals. "Nobody is forbidden," he said. "If they sign the same agreement, any union that shows up can organize here."
Ron Low, a spokesman for Gov. Wilson, said the union agreement "does not invalidate or violate" the tribe's compact with the state. He said the governor's office had not seen or reviewed the union agreement and was withholding further comment until then.
Howard Dickstein, the tribal attorney who negotiated the Pala compact, said he considers it ironic that the debate has shifted from whether tribes should have unions to which unions should they have.
"Many tribes took the firm position for months and months that allowing union activities on their lands was inconsistent with hundreds of years of history and their sovereign status," he said. "Now we're talking about which union gets to organize the workers."