Resolution in Support of Employee Involvement Exposed

The Resolution in Support of Employee Involvement is listed under the ALEC Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force and was included in ALEC's 1996 Sourcebook of American State Legislation. ALEC has attempted to distance itself from this piece of legislation after the launch of ALECexposed.org in 2011, but it has done nothing to get it repealed in the states where it previously pushed for it to be made into law.

ALEC Bill Text

Summary

The Resolution in Support of Employee Involvement recognizes that employee involvement structures, such as safety committees, quality circles and self-managed work teams can be beneficial to a workplace. However, such structures are threatened by the United States Supreme Court's Electromation case, where the Court held that such work teams may be illegal in non-union shops because the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), Section 8(a)(2) prohibits employer "domination, interference or support" of a "labor organization," i.e., "company unions." Congress is considering legislation known as the TEAM Act that would prevent employee involvement structures from being interpreted as company-dominated unions.

Model Resolution

WHEREAS, the Electromation decision threatens to undermine a very positive and important development in United States' labor-management relations; and

WHEREAS, employee-management cooperative programs, sometimes called quality circles, labor-management cooperative teams, or employee involvement teams, share the objective of improving communication, morale, productivity, and product quality by giving workers a greater, more direct voice in decision making; and

WHEREAS, the TEAM Act would protect legitimate employee involvement structures and allow such structures to continue to evolve and proliferate; and

WHEREAS, the TEAM Act would allow employers to give their employees a genuine voice in workplace matters through some mechanism other than collective bargaining; and

WHEREAS, under the Electromation case, every employee involvement structure is vulnerable to a charge being filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by a union attempting to organize the company, a disgruntled employee or anyone else;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the State/Commonwealth of (insert state) affirms the principle that employee involvement structures are a positive and important development in United States' labor-management relations and urges Congress to pass legislation so that such structures can continue to exist and evolve.

1996 Sourcebook of American State Legislation