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Foxwoods beverage union vote set for July 31 |
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 24 July 2010 |
Foxwoods beverage union vote set for July 31
Casino didn’t file appeal, board says
By JAMES MOSHER
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Jul 22, 2010
Mashantucket, Conn. — The National Labor Relations Board has set July 31 as the date for Foxwoods Resort Casino beverage workers to vote on union representation after the casino did not appeal an earlier board ruling.
The labor board will oversee the voting, which will begin at 7 a.m. and conclude at 9:30 p.m. The casino and its owner, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, had sought to have the election conducted under tribal law, but the board rejected that in a July 8 ruling.
The tribe and casino had until July 21 to file an appeal, but did not, labor board spokeswoman Nancy Cleeland said Thursday. The casino had appealed previous union election rulings that favored U.S. law over tribal sovereignty.
Casino spokeswoman Lori Potter couldn’t be reached Thursday for comment.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 371 is seeking to organize 375 bartenders, beverage servers, lounge hosts and bar porters. The Westport-based union represents hundreds of workers in Connecticut supermarkets, include Stop & Shop.
“We’re pleased that we have a date and we plan to make our case to the workers,” said Brian Petronella, president of Local 371.
Union rejected UFCW representation was rejected in a April 2009 vote held under tribal law. The union did not appeal the result.
At the time, tribal law counted nonvotes as “no” votes, although the results of the election were such that the provision did not change the overall outcome. Earlier this year, the tribe changed the law so that nonvotes would not be counted, enabling unionization to be enacted by pure majority. That didn’t satisfy the UFCW, which pushed ahead for NLRB supervision.
The July 31 voting will take place in the casino’s Hospitality Learning Center.
“We’ll be there to make sure there is a free and fair election,” said John Cotter, who works in the NLRB’s Hartford office.
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/business/x1598948613/Foxwoods-beverage-union-vote-set-for-July-31
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