Casinos at Indian tribes reservations are subject to federal labor law, an appeals court ruled Friday.
A wealthy Southern California tribe argued before the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that since the tribes are a sovereign government, they should not be subject to those laws.
The judges disagreed and ruled that the tribal cannot operate freely and under its own rules. "Tribal sovereignty is not absolute autonomy, permitting a tribe to operate in a commercial capacity without legal constraint," said the opinion written by Judge Janice Rogers Brown.
The ruling comes following an organizing dispute at a casino run by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, east of Los Angeles. A union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board claimed that another union was getting preferential access.
At stake are protections and bargaining rights for about 250,000 workers at the 400 tribal casinos in the U.S. The tribal gambling industry, which consists of casinos in 28 states, has grown in recent years into a $22 billion-a-year industry.
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