The Cowlitz Indian Tribe has used union construction labor at its ilani casino, hotel, and resort ever since in 2016 when the project first broke ground north of Ridgefield, Washington. So it came as a shock to David Winkler when the casino hired a non-union Oklahoma firm to replace the carpet on the entirety of the gaming floor.
Winkler is president of Painters and Allied Crafts District Council 5 and works as a business representative for Flooring Installers Local 1236. Local 1236 members are working shorter hours right now thanks to a local construction slowdown, and the local could easily have referred members to perform the needed work. Ilani’s carpet replacement project started March 15 and is expected to last six weeks of 16 hour days, totaling an estimated 6,000 hours of work. A union-signatory carpet contractor did bid on the work, Winkler says, but its bid came in quite a bit above Master Craft Floor Covering of Oklahoma, which won the work.
Unfortunately, Winkler thinks he knows why. When Winkler responded to a Facebook recruitment ad for Master Craft, he was told pay would be $1,700 to $2,000 a week for 50+ hour weeks … but that for the first 30 days workers would be classified as independent contractors, not employees. That’s a lot less than the union scale of $44.28 per hour plus $19.80 in benefits, not to mention paid overtime, unemployment and workers compensation.
“Based on conversations with the company, it’s clear that savings is realized on the backs of the workers who will be misclassified as independent contractors, cheated out of overtime, and not supplied good benefits as have been the negotiated standard in our area,” Winkler told the Labor Press by email.
Winkler said another factor cited by ilani management was Master Craft’s experience as a specialist moving gaming equipment, but the union bidder was prepared to subcontract that part of the job to a contractor with that experience.
Local building trades union leaders have prized their relationship with ilani. The Cowlitz Tribe didn’t get federal recognition until 2000. According to accounts in the Labor Press, the tribe first signed a project labor agreement in 2005 — five years before the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved its application to establish a reservation on 152 acres of land next to I-5.
If ilani is now moving to use non-union labor, things could get awkward: Ilani has been a frequent venue for unions and union contractors to hold meetings and parties. District Council 5 regularly hosts meetings of its six-state health and welfare trust there. The union-signatory contractor that did past carpet work at ilani holds work parties there. The Washington State Building Trades Council is scheduled to have its 2026 convention there June 1-3.
Building trades officials are looking to meet with tribal and casino leadership to see if the commitment to union labor can be reaffirmed. The Labor Press reached out to Ilani and Master Craft but they did not respond.
