Say Anything Blog

This is excerpted from Tom McClintock’s blog.  Go here for the full post.

Finally, there’s a dirty little secret that conservatives need to understand clearly: why the compacts are on the ballot at all.  Under federal law, every California Indian tribe engaged in gaming has to negotiate a compact with the state to share revenues.  These agreements are routinely negotiated with the governor and approved by the legislature without going to voters.

This time however, the hotel and restaurant union, UNITE-HERE, wanted a piece of the action.  The union bosses pressed to have a provision inserted in these four compacts that would have denied workers at the Indian casinos the right to a secret ballot in union elections – a despotic arrangement euphemistically called “card-check neutrality.” Instead of casting a secret ballot in the sanctity of a voting booth, workers could be intimidated into casting ballots while surrounded by union organizers. 

The legislature balked and approved the compacts without taking away workers’ rights to a secret ballot.  In response, the union qualified a referendum to force a statewide vote on these particular agreements (with Las Vegas casinos gleefully joining them).  If they succeed in defeating the compacts, it will be a powerful message that all future agreements must include the “card check” provisions that deny Indian casino workers the protection of the secret ballot.  Sadly and ironically, many conservatives are unwittingly standing with one of the most corrupt unions in California and against Indian entrepreneurs who finally figured out a way to prosper on the flinty land of their reservations.