Hearing scheduled over Foxwoods dealers' union vote (tribe's claim of jurisdictional authority)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416418

Posted: January 07, 2008
by: Gale Courey Toensing / Indian Country Today

HARTFORD, Conn. - The struggle against the imposition of federal law on sovereign tribal lands will continue at a National Labor Relations Board hearing into the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation's complaints over a union vote at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

The hearing will take place Jan. 15 at the board's office in Hartford.

Foxwoods' dealers voted 1,289 to 852 Nov. 24 in favor of forming a United Auto Workers union. The election was conducted under NLRB oversight after the board rejected the tribe's appeal that federal labor laws do not apply on tribal land.

The tribe re-asserted its sovereignty claim in a complaint filed Dec. 3 with the NLRB. The complaint also listed 11 other objections to the vote, including procedural irregularities and allegations that the UAW interfered with the outcome of the election by threats, harassment and other pressure.

In a response Dec. 21, the NLRB again dismissed the tribe's claim of jurisdictional authority on its lands as being ''without merit.''

The tribe had urged the UAW and tribal employees to petition for a union under tribal law rather than federal law, but to no avail.

FULL story at link.