The Future of Labor and Employment Relations in a Global, Knowledge-driven Economy

Abstract

When the World Congress for the International Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) met this summer in Sydney, Australia, the opening of each major session began with a formal acknowledgment of the original owners of the land—naming the specific aboriginal tribes who first inhabited the land on which we were meeting. In our own community, arbitrator–mediators Tia and Richard Denenberg regularly visit and honor Native American burial grounds wherever we have meetings. So, upon returning from Australia, I asked them about the original owners of the land on which we would be meeting here in Atlanta. Based on their information, I now acknowledge the Creek Tribe as the original owners of the land. Long before Europeans arrived to this area, there was a trail that was later named by Europeans for a tall lone pine tree known for its pitch or sap—hence we are meeting on the pitch tree trail (later corrupted to be “Peachtree Street”) established by the Creek Tribe, and we acknowledge them as the original owners of the land.