Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle seem to agree. labor law protecting workers like Navarro does not apply to tribal businesses on tribal lands. Many tribal casinos are now asserting that a U.S. His casino is owned by Pomo Indians from a different tribe, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. He is a Pomo Indian from the Round Valley Tribe. He took a lead role in the union effort, and now he and his fellow slot workers are members of Unite Here, a union representing service workers.īut Navarro now finds himself at the center of a clash between labor rights and tribal sovereignty. Navarro hit it off with a union representative and had a change of heart.
“Because I didn’t know what a union was, I didn’t understand what the union stood for.” “I wasn’t too keen on the union at first,” explained Navarro, a registered Republican.
He was just 45 days into the job when he learned that an effort to unionize the workforce was underway.
In 2013, Gary Navarro took a job working the slots at the Graton Resort and Casino, an Indian-owned casino in Rohnert Park, California.