This month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled 9-1 that Native American reservations can pass right-to-work laws.
Several years ago the Western Council of Industrial Workers Local 1385 filed unfair labor practices against the Pueblo of San Juan after it passed a right-to-work law. The National Labor Relations Board sued the Native American reservation but lost in trial court, in its first appeal, and now on its second appeal.
Right-to-work laws make it illegal to compel people to join a union in order to gain employment. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in this case ruled that, “The legislative enactment of the Pueblo’s right-to-work ordinance was also clearly an exercise of sovereign authority over economic transactions on the reservation.”
Source:
U.S. appellate court upholds right of Indian reservations to ban forced unionism. National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Press Release, January 15, 2002.