NLRB reaffirms jurisdiction over Little River Band gaming facility

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

A view of the Little River Casino Resort. Photo from Facebook

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The National Labor Relations Board is once again asserting jurisdiction over the casino owned by the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians of Michigan.

The tribe maintains its own set of labor laws known as the Fair Employment Practices Code. The laws apply to the Little River Casino Resort and other enterprises on the reservation.

"They are fully operational, with parties relying upon them to govern labor relations, generally, and to negotiate and establish the terms and conditions of continuing employment relations under collective bargaining agreements, specifically," the tribe said in a motion to the NLRB. "They are the product of lengthy legislative processes within the band’s governing tribal council and the deliberations of its regulatory commission. Thus, they reflect important public policy choices about such things as the conditions under which collective bargaining should take place, the mandatory subjects of bargaining when it does, definitions of unfair labor practices, and the procedures for resolving them."

In contrast, the National Labor Relations Act doesn't mention tribes or tribal enterprises. Nevertheless, the board subjected the tribe to the law and held that the Fair Employment Practices Code violates the law.

"The respondent has interfered with, restrained, and coerced employees of the Little River Casino Resort ... by publishing and maintaining provisions of the Fair Employment Practices Code," the NLRB said in a decision on Monday.

"[W]e shall order the respondent to refrain from applying the unlawful provisions of its Fair Employment Practices Code and regulations to the Little River Casino Resort, employees of the resort, or any labor organization that may represent those employees," the decision continued.

The ruling reaffirms the same conclusion the NLRB reached in March 2013. But the dispute required a second look in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning.

In the unanimous decision, the justices held that the NLRB did not have enough valid members to make decisions for certain periods of time. As a result, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the March 2013 ruling and returned the dispute to Washington, D.C.

Now that the NLRB has issued a new ruling, the tribe can go back to court and challenge the application of federal labor law on the reservation.

The case is Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Tribal Government and Local 406, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, No. 07–CA–051156.