Turtle Talk reported this week that the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians is asking the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan to stop the National Labor Relations Board and the Teamsters from challenging the tribe’s Fair Employment Practices Code.
The band’s FEP governs a variety of employment issues, including the terms for collective bargaining – union activity – within tribal enterprises. The United Steelworkers agreed to comply with the band’s code, including an agreement that it obtain a license to engage in activity within the band’s jurisdiction. The Teamsters, however, are refusing to acknowledge the band’s authority to regulate collective bargaining activity and the union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. The complaint can be found here on Turtle Talk.
Evict the Teamsters from the tribal jurisdictional boundaries and send a profound message to other tribal nations throughout the US that conveys to non-Native American business entities that tribal jurisdiction has and will forever be the Supremem Law of the land.
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