ABSTRACT
Virtually alone among the developed nations, American labor law contains a provision barring employers from forming committees of their employees to engage in bilateral discussions over wages, hours, and other conditions of employment. Section 8(a)(2) of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA) prohibits employer domination or support of any “labor organization,” broadly defined in Section 2(5) to reach “any organization of any kind” in which (1) “employees participate,” and (2) “which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers” over (3) “grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work.” Other countries, such as Canada (Taras 1997), bar company-dominated or -supported unions from being certified as bargaining agencies or from being used as a basis to deny employees the opportunity to petition for independent representation. No other country, however, seeks so deeply to entrench the position of independent unions by foreclosing all space for employer-sponsored vehicles for bilateral discussions over pay and working conditions with employees.
