Gambling News - November 2006 Edition

Indian Tribe Seeks Exemption from Federal Labor Laws

After a dispute at the San Manuel casino in Southern California, where a union filed a complaint with the labor board arguing that another union was getting preferential access, an attorney for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians went to court to seek an exemption from federal labor laws for the tribe.  The attorney, Jerome Levine, argued that federal labor laws do not apply to Indian tribes since tribes are sovereign governments.

Levine also argued that the labor board’s 2004 ruling to assert jurisdiction over tribal business represents a total disregard of precedent and policy.

The National Labor Relations Board countered Levine’s argument by pointing out that tribal gambling is increasingly operating like any other business and should, therefore, be subject to the same laws as other businesses. 

The Board’s attorney, David Fleischer, also argued that when a tribe starts distributing profits to tribal members, it has ceased acting like a government and has begun acting like private sector enterprises.

“Paying revenues to its members is like a Nevada casino paying part of its revenues to stockholders.  There’s nothing governmental about it”, he said.

The issue was argued before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and all the judges directed difficult questions at both sides.  The final ruling will affect the protections and rights of approximately 250,000 workers employed in the nation’s 400-plus tribal casinos.  Tribal gambling has mushroomed into $22 billion dollar a year industry and was initially intended as a way to help fund tribal government functions.

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