Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Please note I have a new phone number...

512-517-2708

Alan Maki

Alan Maki
Doing research at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

A program for real change...

http://peaceandsocialjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-progressive-program-for-real-change.html


What we need is a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would make it a mandatory requirement that the president and Congress attain and maintain full employment.


"Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens"

- Ben Franklin

Let's talk...

Let's talk...

Sunday, August 17, 2014

A casino patron lets a few pieces of under-cooked bacon ready to oink skew his thinking on employment issues.


The Palace is a dive. Jesus, not only is the building trashed and completely unplanned but half of the staff are horrible and miserable. Half a dozen fifteen year old security guards talking about tits in the main doors. A dozen wait staff and one cook on break in the restaurant. The snack bar cashier didn't say a single word gave us a dirty look for disturbing her with her head on the edge of the employee buffet haha. Check out the bacon. Any lighter and it would oink.
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  • 6 people like this.

  • Beverly Jordan I wouldnt have eaten it !
  • Patrice Jones Yah I am stunned how the place is, I seldom go there anymore. Sucks when its so close but I'm sure it saves me money. That bacon tho, ewww.
  • Kenn Mitchell and the price of their food at the red cedar grill is outragous.
  • Delmar Jones III We didn't eat the bacon. If we clumped it back together we could have revived it haha. It's just sad. Don't even get me started on bingo.
  • John Herrera Smells like musty smoke hardly ever go there.
  • Delmar Jones III When I was 18 I worked security for the summer at the palace before college. The gift shop was right in the front, that old round thing Archie kicked when they robbed the palace. They had, bingo, blackjack, poker, a functioning restaurant, the hotel didn't have bulletproof glass at the front desk. They had more than six keno machines, they had nickel machines now only pennies. The machines paid coins and I could slip into a bathroom and sit on the bowl and smoke a cigarette in peace. Now the toilets don't work, the floors are sticky and stained yellow, the lights are burnt out and every sink has nothing but burn marks on it. People carrying out one gallon milk jugs full of pepsi. It is terrible.
  • Patrice Jones Bob Larson would be stunned that the palace looks like this.
  • Delmar Jones III He would vomit. He would walk in the front door, take ten steps and throw up all over the floor and rightfully so. They should take half the salary from a Michaud and hire him back at twice his original salary.
  • Alan Maki Casino workers should be paid real living wages and provided with decent benefits. The way in which the bacon is cooked is the least of the problems... to begin with, the meat used isn't even subjected to federal inspection which should be of greater concern from a health standpoint.

    What companies are supplying the meats for Leech Lake's three casinos?


    Why don't the tribes form a co-op to raise and process meats?
  • Delmar Jones III With the service and attitude of about half of the employees at the Palace I wouldn't pay them a nickel. Most gaming employees have better benefits than real world workers, more time off accumulation, overtime opportunities, steady work, cheap health insurance, everything. That is why 90% of the janitors and security guys are the big casino NLC are chimooks just smiling as they slowly walk around making $14 bucks an hour plus social security.
  • Alan Maki Other than management, from pay checks I see, I don't see any $14.00 an hour jobs. Plus, workers routinely get sent home for "lack of work" which makes many of the jobs nothing but part-time jobs.

    As far as security guards, what is it you expect them
    to do if not walk around "doing nothing?" Whether casino cop or tribal cop or any other kind of cop what do these workers do most of the time except demonstrate a presence in order to deter crime? So they are doing their jobs.

    Management could easily prove me wrong by producing what it pays for each and every job.

    Working in a loud, noisy, smoke-filled casino isn't exactly what anyone would call a "health benefit." And, as you know, Leech Lake has a policy that demands any employee developing a prolonged cough be fired.

    How many casino workers do you see sitting down, Delmar? Just having to stand up on a job day in and day out takes a toll on the human body.

    Maybe Leech Lake shouldn't be in the gaming business if the health and welfare of its employees is too much of a burden on the tribe?

    As for the "chimooks" hired by the casino management, why isn't the Indian first employment policy strictly enforced? With all the unemployment and poverty on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation it would seem to me every single employee of Leech Lake's gaming industry would, and should, be Native American--- from top management down to the casino floor. Why isn't this the case, Delmar?

    And what about other job opportunities that should be forthcoming but aren't because T.E.R.O. isn't being effectively applied and enforced?

    And what about Native American craft persons whose work should be on sale in the casino gift shops instead of fake "Native American" crafts manufactured by cheap labor over seas?

    And, tell us WHO owns the slot machines and table games and WHO profits from the interest being paid on the never-ending huge loans to build and then expand these casino operations?

    But, you still haven't answered the questions of:

    Who supplies (and profits from) the meats?

    And why these meats are not government inspected?

    You are worried about wages and foods not properly prepared to your liking when you might want to consider all the other problems.

    You have raised the issue of "At-Will Employment" in the past but you seem to have stopped being concerned about this issue which is one of the primary problems facing casino workers, all tribal employees and all other workers in Minnesota and the rest of the country.

    How many good cooks have been fired from their jobs with Leech Lake gaming simply because these casino management or tribal politicians wanted them gone?

    Don't let a few pieces of undercooked bacon skew your thinking on employment issues.