N.L.R.B. v. Pueblo of San Juan

• Citation: 30 F.Supp.2d 1348
• Decision Date: 30 November 1998
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 98-35 MV/RLP.
• Parties: NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Plaintiff, and Local Union No. 1385, Western Council of Industrial Workers, Plaintiff in Intervention, v. PUEBLO OF SAN JUAN, Defendant.
• Court: United States District Courts. 10th Circuit. District of New Mexico

30 F.Supp.2d 1348

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, Plaintiff and Local Union No. 1385, Western Council of Industrial Workers, Plaintiff in Intervention, v. PUEBLO OF SAN JUAN, Defendant.

Civ. No. 98-35 MV/RLP.

United States District Court, D. New Mexico.

November 30, 1998.

Raymond Hamilton, U.S. Attorney's Office, Albuquerque, NM, Margery E. Lieber, Nancy E. Kessler Platt, Washington, DC, for N.L.R.B.

Morton S. Simon, Simon & Oppenheimer, Santa Fe, NM, Michael T. Garone, Portland, OR, for Local Union No. 1385 Western Council of Indus. Workers.

Leander Bergen, Nordhaus, Haltom, Taylor, Taradash & Frye, Albuquerque, NM, for Pueblo of San Juan.

Mickey D. Barnett, Barnett & Scott, Albuquerque, NM, John C. Scully, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc., Springfield, VA, for National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, amicus.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

VAZQUEZ, District Judge.

THIS MATTER is before the Court on Intervenor's Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. No. 33], Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. No. 39], and Plaintiff National Labor Relations Board's Motion for Summary Judgment [Doc. No. 47] all filed May 1, 1998. Also before the Court is Amicus Curiae National Right to Work Foundation's Memorandum and the parties' responses to the amicus brief. Having reviewed 13 briefs submitted by the parties and the amicus, the Court concludes that oral argument on these Motions is not necessary and, accordingly, DENIES Intervenor's request for a hearing on these matters. Further, the Court, having considered the moving papers, relevant law, and being otherwise fully informed, finds that Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment is well taken and will be GRANTED and that the Intervenor's and the Plaintiff's Motions for Summary Judgment are not-well taken and will be DENIED, as explained below.

BACKGROUND

In this action, Plaintiff the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") and Intervenor Local Union No. 1385, Western Council of Industrial Workers ("Union") challenge the validity of a labor ordinance adopted by Defendant the Pueblo of San Juan ("Pueblo").

The parties agree that the following are the undisputed facts:

Prior to August, 1996, Duke City Lumber Company ("Duke City") owned and operated a sawmill on Tribal land within the San Juan Pueblo Indian Reservation. Duke City leased the land used for its operations from the Pueblo pursuant to an agreement approved by the Department of Interior. On August 21, 1996, Duke City sold the sawmill and related assets to Idaho Timber Corporation ("Idaho Timber"). The Pueblo agreed to release Duke City from all obligations under its lease in exchange for a commitment by Idaho Timber to enter into a new lease. The Department of Interior approved this arrangement.

The Pueblo and Idaho Timber, on behalf of its subsidiary Rio Grande Forest Products, Inc. ("Rio Grande"), negotiated a new lease. The lease finally agreed on contained employment preferences for Tribal members and a "right-to-work" provision which stated that Tribal members would not be required to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment with Rio Grande. The Department of Interior approved the new lease with these provisions. On August 22, 1996, Rio Grande began operating the sawmill pursuant to the conditions of the new lease.

Shortly after Rio Grande assumed operations of the mill, the Union requested that Rio Grande enter into a collective bargaining agreement with it as the exclusive bargaining agent for the employees. Rio Grande refused and the Union filed an unfair labor practices charge with the NLRB on October 25, 1996.

During the pendency of the unfair labor practices charge, on November 6, 1996, the Pueblo enacted Labor Organizations Ordinance No. 96-63 ("Ordinance"). The Ordinance codified the provision of the Rio Grande lease stating that union membership could not be required of anyone employed on Pueblo lands.

In settlement of the unfair labor practices charge, the Union and Rio Grande entered into a collective bargaining agreement. A provision of that agreement requires that all Rio Grande employees become members of the Union. The Union and Rio Grande agreed however that this provision would take effect only if the Pueblo Council repealed the Ordinance or a court declared the Ordinance invalid. On February 4, 1998, the Pueblo amended the Ordinance but did not repeal it.

The NLRB subsequently filed the instant action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief and the Union intervened. Each party has filed a motion for summary judgment, agreeing that there are no genuine issues of material fact. The Pueblo asserts that the Ordinance is a valid exercise of it inherent sovereign authority. The NLRB and the Union argue that federal labor law preempts any legislation on the part of the Tribe in this area. The question currently pending before the Court is which party should prevail on the merits of the case.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Summary judgment is an integral part of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which are intended to "`secure the just, speedy and inexpensive'" Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 327, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986) (quoting Fed.R.Civ.P. 1). Under Rule 56(c), summary judgment is appropriate when the court, viewing the record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, determines that "there is no genuine dispute over a material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Thrasher v. B & B Chemical Co., 2 F.3d 995, 996 (10th Cir.1993).

The movant bears the initial burden of showing "there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Bacchus Indus., Inc. v. Arvin Indus., Inc., 939 F.2d 887, 891 (10th Cir.1991). Once the movant meets this burden, Rule 56(e) "requires the nonmoving party to go beyond the pleadings and by her own affidavits, or by the `depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file,' designate specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548. "Where the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party, there is no `genuine issue for trial.'" Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).

Although the material submitted by the parties in support of and in opposition to the motion must be construed liberally in favor of the party opposing the motion, Harsha v. United States, 590 F.2d 884, 887 (10th Cir. 1979), the burden on the moving party may be discharged by demonstrating to the district court that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548. In such a situation, the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, "because the nonmoving party has failed to make a sufficient showing on an essential element of her case with respect to which she has the burden of proof." Id. at 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548.

ANALYSIS

The legal issue presented by this case is as follows: Can an Indian Tribe adopt an ordinance prohibiting compulsory union membership for all individuals employed within Tribal lands or does federal labor law preempt this area? This is an issue of first impression which has not been addressed in any published opinion.¹

Before addressing this question, the Court must clarify what is not at issue here. The NLRB and the Union spend considerable energy arguing that federal labor law is applicable to a non-Indian employer on Indian lands. This, however, is not the issue in dispute in this case. The Court may assume without deciding that Rio Grande, a wholly private, non-Indian company, is bound by federal labor law, even though its operations are entirely on Indian land. But, as a consequence of the privilege of conducting business on Indian land, Rio Grande must also abide by the law of the San Juan Pueblo Indian Nation. Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, 455 U.S. 130, 137, 102 S.Ct. 894, 71 L.Ed.2d 21 (1982). As a sovereign nation, the Pueblo has the inherent authority to regulate the manner in which commerce is conducted within its territorial limits, which includes the inherent authority to regulate the commercial conduct of non-Indians who choose to engage in business on Indian land. Id. (holding that a Tribe's power to tax business conducted on the reservation derives not only from its power to exclude but also "from the tribe's general authority, as sovereign, to control economic activity within its jurisdiction."); Washington v. Confederated Tribes of Colville Indian Reservation, 447 U.S. 134, 155, 100 S.Ct. 2069, 65 L.Ed.2d 10 (1980) ("Indian tribes possess a broad measure of civil jurisdiction over the activities of non-Indians on Indian reservation lands in which the tribes have a significant interest.") The question is not whether Rio Grande or the Tribe are bound by federal labor law but, rather, whether Rio Grande is also bound by the Pueblo's Labor Ordinance, which, in turn, depends on whether the Tribe had the authority to enact the Ordinance.

To resolve this dispute, the Court looks first to the principles which inform any analysis of the exercise of Indian sovereign authority. The Supreme Court has recognized that, "[t]hrough various Acts governing Indian tribes, Congress has expressed the purpose of `fostering tribal self-government.'" Merrion, 455 U.S. at 138, 102 S.Ct. 894. "Indian tribes within `Indian country' are a good deal more than `private, voluntary organizations.' They are unique aggregations possessing attributes of sovereignty over both their members and their territory." Id. (citations and quotations marks removed). As this Court previously observed,

[i]t is clearly established law that Indian tribes do not derive their sovereign powers from congressional delegation. Rather, tribal sovereignty is inherent, and tribes retain `attributes of sovereignty over...