UAW at Foxwoods members celebrate historic contract

North Stonington - Finally, they could party.

Some 400 members of UAW at Foxwoods, the union representing table-games dealers at Foxwoods Resort Casino and MGM Grand at Foxwoods, celebrated their first-ever contract with casino management Friday night, basking in the praise of state and union officials, lawmakers and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.

"You made history," Courtney told the lively crowd at Lake of Isles, the Mashantucket Pequot-owned golf club opposite Foxwoods. "They will be writing history and law books about you for years to come."

The celebration came six weeks after union members overwhelmingly approved a tentative contract settlement between union leadership and the Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprise, the entity that operates the casinos. It was the first such contract negotiated under tribal law rather than the National Labor Relations Act.

Many a speaker referred to the process as "a struggle."

"Many years ago, a group of angry Foxwoods dealers contacted the UAW about forming a union," Julie Kushner, assistant regional director of the union, recalled. "They said they weren't being treated right and they needed help."

They soon learned, she said, that there would be more to it than "asking for cards and signing everybody up. But people dug in and did the hard work."

On June 22, 2007, an organizing committee began enlisting those interested in unionizing. Within days, more than 1,000 workers had signed up.

Five months later, on Nov. 24, 2007, dealers voted to affiliate with the UAW, touching off a legal dispute over the tribe's insistence that tribal law govern contract negotiations. Ultimately, the union agreed to such a process without waiving any of its rights under federal law.

Contract talks began Nov. 25, 2008.

The pact affords dealers an average wage increase of 12 percent over two years; a more equitable distribution of tips; extended medical leave; a segregated, smoke-free gaming area; greater job security and new procedures for resolving disputes with management. It applies to some 2,500 dealers at the two casinos.

"Foxwoods is a union house now," Bob Madore, the UAW's regional director, said. "Tell everyone who goes there to tip well — not necessarily lose well, but tip well. ... (Foxwoods') profits become your profits."