By Patricia Daddona    Published on 5/19/2008 (Click here to see original article)

Mashantucket—As the reggae tune “Get Up, Stand Up” blared Sunday, United Auto Workers union flags fluttered in front of passing motorists across the street from the MGM Grand at Foxwoods. On MGM Grand's first full day in business, about 500 yellow-shirted dealers from Foxwoods Resort Casino and other unions used music, placards and flags as rallying calls to broadcast their quest for a Foxwoods union.

“We are all working to build unions just like you,” said Karen Chiu, a UAW organizer for four casinos organizing in Atlantic City — Bally, Caesar's, Trump Plaza and Tropicana. “Just like you, the companies are refusing to bargain the first contract.”

Then, to raucous applause, she declared, “One casino, one union!”

Foxwoods table games and poker dealers, who voted to organize six months ago, are upset because MGM Grand will have a separate tip pool from Foxwoods, which they say will likely penalize longtime dealers if higher-stakes games move to the new casino.

The Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which built both Foxwoods and MGM Grand, has questioned the authority of the National Labor Relations Board, which authorized the union, and insists any union should be organized only under tribal — not U.S. federal — law.

On Sunday, Chiu, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and a host of lawmakers took to a microphone on the bed of a pickup truck parked directly across from the MGM Grand entrance, to make their point.

Gesturing to the towering MGM casino and hotel and nearby Foxwoods, Blumenthal called the dealers courageous for taking on a battle that has implications for tribally owned casinos nationwide.

“We look across the road to a lot of big buildings and a lot of wealth and power,” he said, “but I'll tell you what you have on your side — you have the law. You are going to win this fight.”

Dealers and union supporters shook metal soda cans full of rocks or banged sticks on the tops of orange and white barricades as they chanted and waved to people driving into the MGM Grand entrance or passing by.

Late in the morning, inside the MGM Grand, patrons appeared oblivious to the outdoor protest, eyes trained instead on two-penny slots or the latest gizmo at MacAppeal, one of the outlets lining the thickly carpeted walkway circling the casino floor.

But those at the three-hour demonstration began to turn away from the road to focus on the speakers such as Cathy Rayner, a pari-mutuel clerk for Simulcast racing and jai alai at the Newport Grand.

“We have wall to wall union” in Newport, R.I., Rayner, the president of UAW Local 7770 told the crowd, including valet drivers, maintenance workers, slot attendants and room service workers.

Having had a union since 1991, she continued, “Our facility is small and it makes millions. We have a good contract. Foxwoods is a multi-billion company and they pay their workers $4.25 an hour.”

That rate is the base pay paid by the company, but the dealers earn more in hourly tokes, or tips, from customers.

Reached by phone Sunday afternoon, Bruce Mac- Donald, a tribal spokesman, said he would not negotiate union issues in the press.

“The weekend event was a publicity stunt,” he said. “At its root, we have a legal dispute not a labor dispute. The UAW could have organized under tribal labor law but they chose not to.”

Members and organizers from UAW unions in Massachusets, New York, Rhode Island and New Jersey showed up. They included everyone from the Hartford branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers to John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, and Bob Canova, president of the UAW Local 571 for Electric Boat.

“We will be here as long as it takes because the bottom line is, one union, one contract,” said Canova. “It's time to deal with the dealers.”

Mary Johnson of East Hampton, a longtime dealer at Foxwoods, said earlier in the day, “Dealers are upset, and that's why we're showing up. We're mad. It's a solidarity statement to Foxwoods that we're here and we're not going away.”

Johnson danced to the music, which featured Bob Marley's lyrics, “Get up, stand up—stand up for your rights.”

Other workers latched onto that cadence at various points before and after speakers addressed the crowd, leading chants like “One casino, one union. One toke, no smoke,” a reference to the smoking ban they are also seeking.

Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, encouraged dealers not to lose sight of their goal.

“We're behind you 100 percent,” she said. “You're not standing alone.”

Brian A. Petronella, president of the Local 371 United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, also shouted words of support to the crowd. He is organizing about 1,250 food and beverage workers at Foxwoods.

State Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, offered the Asian dealers his direct help, saying he'd heard the casino treats Asians differently from other workers, in part by getting “all the yellow-skinned workers together so they can bust this union.”

MacDonald bristled at that, noting, “This is a minority- owned company and the owners of this casino would not tolerate that kind of sentiment for a nanosecond.”

State police at the scene said they encountered no disruptions at the rally, and dealers and organizers at the end called it “a good day” and, even at this late date, “just a start.”

“This could all be handled very easily (if the tribe would) come and sit down and negotiate,” said George Taylor of Moosup, a dealer for 14 years. “We've won the right to be represented the way we chose. Majority rules.”

The next vote for a UAW union at Foxwoods will occur on May 30, organizers said, when the NLRB holds an election for about 40 Racebook workers.