$200M casino goes toU.S. Supreme Court
While a U.S. Court of Appeals decision last May was favorable, continued opposition to a casino plan for Wayland Township, including an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, has resulted in another court approved stay of construction.

The critics of the casino charge the statute used by the federal government to put 147 acres of land for the facility in trust is unconstitutional, and that the action violates federal environmental laws.

Thusfar the anti-casino group MichGO has not been able to win a judgment in its favor in court. Observers believe its chances of winning consideration by the highest court are slim but that it could be six months or more before it decides if it will hear the case. Typically the U.S. Supreme Court hears about 5% of the cases filed with it.

The casino is being proposed by the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, also known as the Gun Lake Tribe. It would be located at a site at US-131 and 129th Avenue, near Bradley, midway between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. The tribe is proposing initial construction of a 193,000 square foot gaming complex on the property of the former Ampro factory.

In 2003 the tribe announced an agreement with Station Casinos of Las Vegas, Nevada, to develop and operate the casino. The facility is to house 2,500 slot machines, 75 gaming tables, an entertainment center, restaurants, and a buffet. Construction is expected to take from 12 to 16 months.

According to the tribe for the full development of the casino it expects to invest up to $200 million. It has declared union labor will be used during its construction.
(From Michigan Construction News.org)

Dem platform strong on workers' issues
DENVER (PAI) - The Democratic platform is a strong document on workers' issues, including an open endorsement of the Employee Free Choice Act, says a top AFL-CIO staffer who served on the key subcommittee that drafted it.

In an interview with Press Associates Union News Service, AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee - the labor federation's liaison with the Democratic platform drafters - said unionists also should prefer the party's stands on renegotiating trade treaties to include worker rights, and on labor rights for various U.S. worker groups. Among them are collective bargaining rights for all federal workers and first responders nationwide.

She said other sections that will please workers include a ringing endorsement of paid family and medical leave and advocacy of up to seven days of paid sick leave for all workers - a top cause of woman unionists.
"We're very pleased with the overall platform. It's strong on trade and infrastructure" and it advocates not just getting Canada and Mexico to sit down to discuss NAFTA, but insertion of worker rights in all future trade pacts, Lee adds.

The platform also coincides with what Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the party's nominee, says on the campaign trail. In his latest speech to a labor audience, Obama told a group of 1,000 Laborers activists, by teleconference on Aug. 21, that he would actively be "the infrastructure president."

The 51-page platform opens with a lengthy blast at the anti-worker Bush regime, faulting it for mismanagement - and worse - in both foreign and domestic policy. It says Bush the government towards the rich and away from workers and the American dream. The Democrats promise to change those priorities.

"We will provide immediate relief to working people who lost their jobs, families who lost their homes, and people who have lost their way," the platform declares.

In his speech at the convention, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney used the example of "Dan Luevano… an electrician who worked for a construction company for 10 years, six of them without a raise. When he told his boss he'd be voting for a union so he could bargain for a better life, he was fired."

Sweeney said such workers - all workers - "deserve a better America, an America where every worker can count on a good job, where every family has health care, where every senior enjoys a decent retirement….where all workers have a free choice to join unions, to collectively bargain, to lift up their communities and our economy and build a better life for their children."