Lumber Industry Pension Fund v. Warm Springs Forest Products Industries

ORDER

The memorandum disposition filed June 19, 1991, is redesignated with slight modifications as an opinion authored by Judge Farris.

OPINION

Lumber Industry Pension Fund appeals the dismissal of its action to recover pension contributions from Warm Springs Forest Products Industries. 730 F.Supp. 324 . The Fund argues that although Warm Springs is an Indian entity, the Employment Retirement Income Security Act and Labor Management Relations Act apply. We reverse.

Warm Springs Forest Products Industries is a tribally owned and operated sawmill located on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Up until June 30, 1988 the mill was a signatory to a collective bargaining agreement with the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union. That agreement required the mill to make pension contributions on behalf of its employees to the Lumber Industry Pension Fund.

In December 1987, the mill stopped making contributions to the Fund on behalf of approximately ninety of its employees and began making contributions to the tribal pension plan. The Fund filed this action pursuant to ERISA, 29 U.S.C. §§ 1132 and 1145, and the LMRA, 29 U.S.C. § 185 , seeking recovery of pension contributions for the period…