Aboriginal bands have no authority to ban strikes

Precedent setting ruling by Ontario Labour Relations Board

Toronto - Aboriginal bands have no authority to ban strikes or lockouts on First Nation reserves, the Ontario Labour Relations Board has declared in a precedent-setting ruling.

The decision involves the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, a band that adopted its own labour code at a gambling casino it owns in Port Perry, Ontario. The casino is operated by the Great Blue Heron Gaming Company.

Board chair Kevin Whitaker ruled that the regulation of labour relations on reserve lands is not based on historical practice and therefore cannot reasonably be deemed to be covered by restrictions contained in the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Charter prevents government from unilaterally abrogating aboriginal and treaty rights.

Whitaker ruled that the regulating of strikes and lockouts is not "integral to the distinctive culture" of aboriginal society or something that has "truly made" the society what it is today.

He found that it was not sufficient for the band to merely argue that it was asserting its right to self-government on its own territory in outlawing strikes and lockouts.

In fact, the band was pursuing a more narrow and specific objective of regulating labour relations on reserve lands, something it could not prove to be a matter of distinctive, ancestral practice, Whitaker concluded. NUPGE

More information:
• OLRB - CAW vs. Great Blue Heron Gaming Company

Web posted by NUPGE: 14 January 2004

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