Casino workers rally outside Sky River for labor deal. ‘We want them to hear us’
Around 100 Sacramento-area casino workers and labor allies protested Tuesday evening at the entrance to Sky River Casino, the latest escalation in the hotel and casino workers’ union’s yearslong organizing campaign for the tribal casino that opened in 2022.
Francisco Maldonado, a lead cook at Sky River, said there has been a sense of frustration among workers. They feel they are making progress toward union representation, he said, but it has been very slow.
“We want them to hear us,” Maldonado said.
Unite Here Local 49 — the area chapter of the hotel and casino workers’ union — has argued that, under an agreement the groups reached in 2017, the casino must recognize the union as its workers’ representative. The casino has argued that, under tribal code, the union must first hold an election among the workers.
The union held a rally in November at a public plaza in Elk Grove, about 4 miles from the casino. Tuesday marked the group’s first public action just outside the casino, visible to customers entering the parking lot.
“We are doing something a little bit bigger,” said Aamir Deen, president of Unite Here Local 49, “hoping that they reverse directions.”
“We’re going to continue to escalate,” he said.
Cammeron Hodson, president of the Wilton Rancheria Gaming Authority, on Tuesday reiterated the casino’s calls for a secret ballot election among the workers. Hodson said in a statement that they “have been waiting for an opportunity to decide for themselves” if they will join Unite Here.
Unite Here has argued that an election would extend an already prolonged process.
Hodson stressed the importance of Wilton Rancheria’s sovereignty, and said the tribe will continue to stand up for its laws.
Wilton Rancheria lost its federal recognition — and its autonomy to govern — in 1959, when the California Rancheria Termination Acts were enacted. The tribe regained its recognition in 2009, and today it has more than 1,000 members, many of them in the Sacramento region.
The protest comes as multiple Northern California casino contracts are set to expire over the course of the year, including Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, Cache Creek Casino Resort in Brooks, Harrah’s Northern California in Ione and Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park, Deen said.
The Sky River dispute dates back to 2017, before the casino was built, when the union and the casino reached an agreement laying out the terms by which Unite Here Local 49 could seek to represent its future workers. The Wilton Rancheria opened Sky River in August 2022, and Unite Here said it informed the casino the following summer that a majority of workers had signed union authorization cards, as described in the agreement.
The tribe has said that its labor code requires both a card-check process and a union election. The 2017 agreement the tribe reached with the union, its attorneys said, stated that the tribe’s code governs labor relations at the casino.
A lawsuit over the dispute was argued before the 9th Circuit in December. The groups are awaiting the court’s decision.
Dan Arredondo, who said he is a member of the leadership group of the Elk Grove-Laguna chapter of Indivisible and a customer of Sky River, said he’s always had a good experience at the casino. Part of the entertainment value, he said, is good customer service.
“You won’t get that out of employees unless they feel valued,” Arredondo said. “So if that’s what they’re struggling about, we want to be out here supporting them.”
The union has cited a survey by UC Davis researchers who found that union-represented casino workers in the region earned, on average, 12.7% more than workers at non-union casinos.
Maldonado, the cook, said he makes $24.03 an hour, and rotates what bills he pays each month.
The protesters marched on the sidewalk of Promenade Parkway on Tuesday evening, carrying signs and chanting their demands.
“We want them to know that today is just the beginning,” Deen, the union president, told the crowd. “The longer this takes, the stronger we will be.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2026 at 7:23 PM.
