A North Island First Nations forestry company is taking legal action to end the strike by the United Steelworkers union on the north Island, claiming it is bargaining in bad faith by insisting the company requires future contractors, including Indigenous-owned ones, to tell employees they must join the union.

La-kwa sa muqw Forestry (LKSM) is seeking a ruling that the strike is illegal. It maintains the union can attempt to bargain for expanding the bargaining unit, but it cannot force a strike over the issue.

"LKSM is not insisting that future Indigenous contractors be non-union, rather, that employees should have a choice, especially when working on their own lands, of if and how to organize themselves," says LKSM in a Sept. 17 media release.

On June 6, 105 United Steelworkers forestr

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