Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I strongly encourage my colleagues to reject this anti-worker bill masquerading as an issue of Tribal sovereignty. I strongly support Tribal sovereignty. I can't speak for everyone in this body, but I am virtually certain that every single Democratic Member of this body supports Tribal sovereignty, and I am pretty certain that most Republican Members of this body support Tribal sovereignty, but that is not what this bill is about. This is just the latest battle in the decades-long war that so many in this town have been waging to undermine the rights of American workers. This bill strips away the rights of 600,000 employees at Tribal casinos, so 600,000 employees at casinos on Tribal lands will lose their right to collective bargaining. We know what that means to their wages and their benefits. Seventy-five percent of these 600,000 employees are not members of a Tribe. So when these casinos all over the country, on reservations, these casinos on Indian lands--most of the 600,000 employees at the Tribal casinos have the right to collectively bargain, to form unions if they choose, to collectively bargain if they choose, and to get better wages and benefits if that is what brings them to it. Again, 75 percent of these workers are not members of any of these Tribes. There are other Federal laws that apply to workplaces on Tribal lands.…”