[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 295 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 295

 To permit labor management cooperative efforts that improve America's 
economic competitiveness to continue to thrive, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 30, 1995

 Mrs. Kassebaum (for herself, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Gregg, and Mr. Gorton) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                 Committee on Labor and Human Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To permit labor management cooperative efforts that improve America's 
economic competitiveness to continue to thrive, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Teamwork for Employees and 
Management Act of 1995''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) the escalating demands of global competition have 
        compelled an increasing number of American employers to make 
        dramatic changes in workplace and employer-employee 
        relationships;
            (2) these changes involve an enhanced role for the employee 
        in workplace decisionmaking, often referred to as ``employee 
        involvement'', which has taken many forms, including self-
        managed work teams, quality-of-worklife, quality circles, and 
        joint labor-management committees;
            (3) employee involvement structures, which operate 
        successfully in both unionized and non-unionized settings, have 
        been established by over 80 percent of the largest employers of 
        the United States and exist in an estimated 30,000 workplaces;
            (4) in addition to enhancing the productivity and 
        competitiveness of American businesses, employee involvement 
        structures have had a positive impact on the lives of those 
        employees, better enabling them to reach their potential in 
        their working lives;
            (5) recognizing that foreign competitors have successfully 
        utilized employee involvement techniques, Congress has 
        consistently joined business, labor and academic leaders in 
        encouraging and recognizing successful employee involvement 
        structures in the workplace through such incentives as the 
        Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award;
            (6) employers who have instituted legitimate employee 
        involvement structures have not done so to interfere with the 
        collective bargaining rights guaranteed by the labor laws, as 
        was the case in the 1930s when employers established deceptive 
        sham ``company unions'' to avoid unionization; and
            (7) employee involvement is currently threatened by 
        interpretations of the prohibition against employer-dominated 
        ``company unions''.
    (b) Purposes.--It is the purpose of this Act to--
            (1) protect legitimate employee involvement structures 
        against governmental interference;
            (2) preserve existing protections against deceptive, 
        coercive employer practices; and
            (3) permit legitimate employee involvement structures where 
        workers may discuss issues involving terms and conditions of 
        employment, to continue to evolve and proliferate.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENT TO SECTION 8(a)(2) OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS 
              ACT.

    Section 8(a)(2) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 
158(a)(2)) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: 
``Provided further, That it shall not constitute or be evidence of an 
unfair labor practice under this paragraph for an employer to 
establish, assist, maintain or participate in any organization or 
entity of any kind, in which employees participate to address matters 
of mutual interest (including issues of quality, productivity and 
efficiency) and which does not have, claim or seek authority to 
negotiate or enter into collective bargaining agreements under this Act 
with the employer or to amend existing collective bargaining agreements 
between the employer and any labor organization;''.

SEC. 4. CONSTRUCTION CLAUSE LIMITING EFFECT OF ACT.

    Nothing in the amendment made by section 3 shall be construed as 
affecting employee rights and responsibilities under the National Labor 
Relations Act other than those contained in section 8(a)(2) of such 
Act.
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