Casino Workers and Human Rights

Communications Specialist
Voice@Work,AFL-CIO

Office: 202-637-3921
Cell: 202-538-1853

kblomdah@aflcio.org

December 10, 2006

Sister Katrina Blomdahl;

I was happy to see that the AFL-CIO has taken the initiative to focus on Human Rights Day, December 10, 2006; and has done so the last three years, although the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights came into existence 58 years ago on December 10, 1948.

Perhaps you are unaware, but in the three states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan more than 100,000 casino workers go to their jobs every single day of the year in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights what-so-ever under state or federal labor laws. I am wondering why the AFL-CIO has not taken up this issue as a human rights issue? After all, there isn’t another country in the world where people are forced to work under such Draconian conditions imposed and enforced by such ruthless managements that include the most vile and violent mobsters who hide their dirty deeds behind the façade of “sovereignty.” No other sovereign nation in the world allows workers to be mistreated and subjected to this kind of injustice. Politicians have entered into “compacts” with the Indian Nations which serve as a front for organized crime in operating these casinos. That “sovereignty” would be used by these mobsters in running these casinos was a scheme hatched by Meyer Lansky in order for mobsters to recover their losses after getting the boot in Cuba at the time of the socialist revolution.

Not only has the AFL-CIO ignored the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights all these years, the AFL-CIO and it state affiliates have turned their heads in indifference to the hundreds of thousands of working people who have been employed in these casinos for a third of that time; worse than even indifference, is the fact that the AFL-CIO and its many national, state, and local affiliates participated in this scheme that left so many workers without any rights--- or a voice at work--- at their places of employment.

You speak of empowering working people to take political action; you cannot begin to empower workers who lack even the most basic and fundamental rights that other working people are entitled to. Neither you nor brother Sweeney would send your children to work in a McDonalds or Wal-marts under these circumstances. Yet, at this late date, after 58 years of the existence of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the rest of the world’s labor unions and organizations recognizing this historic document that finally enshrined workers’ rights as the equivalent of human rights, the AFL-CIO (along with its partner, the Democratic Party, and its state and local affiliates) stands aloof, and in silence, of the terrible injustices casino workers are forced to endure daily.

I am including a recent letter I sent to United Congressman elect Keith Ellison with further concerns that I have relating to the conditions under which AFL-CIO and Change To Win are allowing their members to work under in the construction of these casino facilities.

Many years ago when I was on the Kent County, Michigan AFL-CIO Education Committee I along with the two co-chairs of that committee, Joseph Manceiwicz and Perry Springer, along with Larry Hammelink who was the president of the Carpenters’ Local met with Lane Kirkland, the then President of the AFL-CIO and suggested that the AFL-CIO join the rest of the worlds’ labor unions and organizations in promoting the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and working to publicize the importance of each anniversary of this Declaration on December 10. President Kirkland responded by dictating to the Kent County Labor Council that I be removed from the educational committee or the Council face have their Charter revoked. I bring this up because there is an important reason why it has taken the AFL-CIO so long to acknowledge the importance of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to conduct activities around December 10; the reason being that the AFL-CIO systematically abused the rights of working people and participated in black-listing in the manner of any corporate management and in complete complicity with the aims of corporate management.

The black-listing was carried out against communists, liberals, progressives and anyone in union leadership or rank-and-file union members who simply advocated for peace and social justice. I point this out because there is a carry over into the present day by unions of this same kind of back-wards thinking which has raised its ugly head in relation to our campaign to organize casino workers.

I think the AFL-CIO has a long way to go between words and deeds; one cannot claim to be promoting human rights on the one hand, and then attacking those fighting for these very same rights on the other hand as is being done in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan by some prominent labor “leaders” in these three states who take the same kind of back-wards approach to our organizing campaign that Lane Kirkland took many years ago. I have been singled out for attack by those who engage in the despicable acts of “negotiating” sweet-heart contracts that in the short, and long terms, are even detrimental to their own memberships.

I would ask you or anyone else from the AFL-CIO or Change To Win why the many years of silence concerning the rights of casino workers? Why no movement to condemn the injustices or any attempts to organize casino workers? We need an explanation for this to come out of your “Organizing Summit,” not only for the rights, health, and welfare of casino workers, but because as long as so many workers are employed under these deplorable working conditions without any rights or a voice at work, these casino workers are effectively used as a club over the heads of all other working people; I would think that both you and Brother Acuff would recognize this. Workers everywhere have the right to organize; there is no exception to this very basic issue that is at its very core a human rights issue which should be addressed on Human Rights Day at your “Organizing Summit,” like the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human rights itself, an honest and belated recognition of this grave injustice is better then remaining silent and refusing to address this issue at all.

Hopefully our Organizing Committees in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan will not have to take the next step on our organizing agenda in order to win union contracts for casino workers; that step will be to establish a “Wall of Shame” upon which the photographs of casino patrons will begin to appear all over the internet and on public bulletin boards. We will be singling out those members of Locals affiliated with the AFL-CIO and Change To Win who during their regular work shifts are employed in construction on these casinos under the terms of sweetheart contracts, then go shove their quarters into the slot machines in these casinos as their sisters and brothers are forced to work under the conditions previously described. We are planning this action to coincide with International Human Rights Day on December 10 as we also celebrate the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hopefully we will not have to place the Democratic Party, the AFL-CIO, and Change to Win at the top, front and center of the “Wall of Shame.” Please feel free to talk to those workers employed on the casino construction sites at Hinckley, Minnesota, Escanaba, Michigan, and Petoskey, Michigan where I have recently been photographing these union members at work, and “at play.”

Over the last several months my activity in these casinos has largely centered on approaching union members sitting at slot machines plunking in their quarters while wearing their union caps, t-shirts, sweaters, and jackets which are often adorned with union buttons. Many get up and leave once brought up to speed on the situation, others just sit in indifference. I think this indifference will begin to change as we launch our new campaign in conjunction with our present activities. Also, this will make it much easier for us to reach out to the Canadian public who are crossing the border by the busloads at present. The bus drivers, many of whom are members of the Transport Workers Union be photographed for the “Wall of Shame.”

Again, I hope you, and Brothers Acuff and Sweeney, Karen Ackerman, House Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, Senate LaborCommittee Chair Ted Kennedy, CWA President and AFL-CIO Organizing Committee Chairman Larry Cohen, AFT President Ed McElroy, and NEAPresident Reg Weaver, Ed Sabol, Jim Schmitz, Leticia Zavala, John Edwards, American Rights at Work Chairman and former House Democratic Leader David Bonior, Gerry McEntee, and Steelworkers President Leo Gerard will give consideration to the plight of casino workers during your “Organizing Summit” December 8th to 10th 2006 in Washington D.C; I trust you will pass this letter on to them. I also hope that you will distribute this communication far and wide so that your members in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan will not be caught by surprise when their photos begin to appear on our “Wall of Shame.”

Fraternally yours in the struggle for the rights of all workers,

Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing
Red Lake Casino, Hotel, and Restaurant Employees’ Union Organizing Committee

and

Member of the state central committee of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party (Democratic Party)

and

founding member, Minnesotans for Peace and Social Justice

58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Attachment:

From: Alan Maki

To: Keith Ellison keith@keithellison.org

Cc: Charles Underwood peacecalendar@visi.com ; rep.tom.rukavina@house.mn ; melanieb@millelacsojibwe.nsn.us ; Floyd jourdain floydjourdain2@hotmail.com ; rep.bill.hilty@house.mn ; rep.dave.olin@house.mn

Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 11:04:47 AM
Congressman Ellison;

Congratulations on your hard fought for and well deserved victory at the polls. Please permit me to voice a few concerns I have. Several months ago you suggested I stop by for a chat; sorry we haven't been able to connect due to our busy schedules.

Perhaps you have already seen these two articles I am posting at the bottom of this e-mail, if not, I hope you find them informative and willing to check out the accuracy of what is being stated. Also, I hope you will check out George McGovern's "Blueprint" for ending this dirty war in Iraq.

I also wanted to let you know that I think U.S. Representative Alcee Hastings would make an excellent Chair for the Intelligence Committee. Through my membership and work with the NAACP I know Congressman Hastings personally to be a very moral human-being of great strength and courage who has stood up to the most unrelenting campaign of lies and innuendo and it is just such a person we require in this position at this critical time in our nation's history when so many lies have been told and continue to be told by Bush and his gang of warmongers.

Hopefully we can meet soon to discuss the problems of casino workers in Minnesota. I will be in Washington to discuss this issue with Representatives and Senators in the near future. In the past, the injustices that casino workers are experiencing has fallen on deaf ears... perhaps now this will change. As you are aware, more than twenty thousand casino workers go to their jobs in unhealthy smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights whatever under state or federal labor laws and receive poverty wages.

I just came back from a trip through Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan where casino workers are in similar straights... between these three state over 100,000 casino workers are involved. As you know, what is purported to be the "Indian casino industry" is a rather new industry across this nation, and given the fact that it is a relatively new industry where elected officials were well aware of human rights standards as they entered into these "compacts" that established this gaming industry it makes the injustices all that more glaring and offensive to any thinking person who wonders what was in the minds of these elected officials that they would enter into these agreements while placing so many workers at risk.

There is no justification for the continuation of casino workers remaining at the hands of these casino owners and operators under such Draconian working conditions. I would call to your attention that the owners/operators of these casinos have used the issue of "sovereignty" to evade recognizing the desires of casino workers to work under the protection of union contracts. This is a bogus issue on its face. There is no nation on the face of this earth that has a right to place working people in an environment without any rights, completely at the mercy of management.

Furthermore, millions of dollars in casino construction is now underway in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan... being done under union contract with agreement by the Teamsters and the building and construction trades unions that they would get the work PROVIDED THEY MAINTAIN A HANDS OFF APPROACH TO THE WORKERS IN THESE CASINOS; this is a racist and shameful sweetheart agreement.

On these construction sites OSHA inspectors are prohibited, as are state building inspectors... the general contractors are the "enforcers" of working conditions... a completely unheard of situation which places construction workers and casino patrons at risk.

One only has to make a brief tour through the Seven Clans Casino in Warroad to see what a risk there is to both employees and the public without state inspectors having access to these facilities; should hundreds of people shoving their hard earned money into slot machines on the second floor and a fire or some other disaster strikes, they would never make it down the steep narrow stairway.

I am sending this e-mail to a number of people including Melanie Benjamin and Chairman Floyd Jourdain; they may want to respond to each of this with justification for why this is all going on. Furthermore, state and federal food and health inspectors are barred from casino facilities even though tens of thousands of people eat in the casino owned restaurants daily. Melanie Benjamin and Chairman Jourdain write and speak of human rights... rights they will not even extend to those whom they employ.

Another of my concerns is health care. While I support single-payer, universal health care and believe the Conyer's initiative (HR 676) has much merit... I think we need to go much further in calling for a "publicly administered, publicly funded health care system." At some point I would like to discuss this with you also.

On this issue of the minimum wage which you will soon be voting on, I would like to suggest that there needs much more discussion on this issue because just pulling a minimum wage figure from a hat for political expediency is not only morally wrong, but continues poverty; as any school child understands, poverty cannot ever be eliminated as long as workers are receiving poverty wages. Therefore, it is my suggestion that the minimum wage should be tied directly to the calculations that have been scientifically determined by the United States Department of Labor of what is required for a real living income. Why should we pay statisticians and researchers to conduct all this work and then not legislate based upon their calculations? I think that anyone who has the unmitigated gall to suggest that $7.25 be the minimum wage should have to live on such a wage themselves.

I would also encourage you to take a look at the proposal to place the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant under public ownership rather than allowing its closure. [Please see my Labor Blog]

In conclusion, let me just say that working people are looking for politicians such as yourself to be their voice in a congress filled with millionaires, and even billionaires; we really do want, and expect, some real tangible results that will enable us to live better and more dignified lives. As the largest international labor body, the newly founded International Trade Union Confederation has pointed out, unbridled capitalist globalization cannot be allowed to run roughshod over the rights of working people as corporations seek out greater profits. At some point the socialist alternative as advocated by former Minnesota governors Floyd B. Olson and Elmer Benson and United States Congressman John Bernard from Eveleth, Minnesota will have to be considered as we discuss solutions to the many pressing problems working people are experiencing.

Recently I read where a northwest Minnesota company that now employs only 50 workers up here in northern Minnesota is expanding into China where they will employ between 250 to three hundred people. The news article mentioned that the ground-breaking ceremony in China was attended by hundreds of dignitaries including over one hundred Chinese public officials and the ceremony included a prayer service; it seems that American business people who have ranted against socialism for so many years are now seeking their economic and financial salvation along with their religious salvation in socialist China... under these circumstances I think we do need to consider the socialist solution here in our own country today... if for no other reason that these business people will not have to travel so far for their salvation... and it would create jobs right here.

I do not know what politicians allowed Mattracks Industries to flee to China in quest of cheaper labor where their new manufacturing facility will include brand spanking new dormitory housing for all of its employees while people on Indian Reservations here live in such squalor, but at some point the public is entitled to be a party to such decisions... without this kind of participation, democracy becomes kind of a farce. You can read about Mattracks building their new 500,000 square foot manufacturing facility in China in the Grand Forks Herald or the Northern Watch newspaper which serves northwestern Minnesota.

Again, congratulations on your election to the United States Congress; you certainly have your job cut out for you... I am sure all the people of Minnesota now have a Congressperson they can count on to carry their voice for peace, human rights, workers' rights, and social justice forward.

Make the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights a living reality for all people: End the war in Iraq, Universal Health-care, increase the minimum wage to a real living wage, defend and expand Social Security, save the Big Bog;

Yours in the struggle,

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,
Red Lake Casino, Hotel, and Restaurant Employees' Union Organizing Committee

and

Roseau County member of the state central committee, MN DFL

58891 County Road 13Warroad, MN 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432

amaki000@centurytel.net

Twenty-thousand Minnesotans go to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under Minnesota or Federal labor laws.