Nancy Kassebaum: “I rise to discuss, again, legislation that has been before us, which is support for the Teamwork for Employees and…”

“I rise to discuss, again, legislation that has been before us, which is support for the Teamwork for Employees and Management Act, the TEAM Act. During the past couple of days, we have had some lengthy debate on this legislation, as well as, of course, repeal of the 4.3-cent gas tax, and raising the minimum wage. I thought it might be useful at this point to review some of the debate back and forth on the TEAM Act, what it does and does not do, and dispel some of the myths that have surfaced over the course of the debate. The TEAM Act responds to a series of decisions by the National Labor Relations Board that invalidated numerous employee involvement programs. The NLRB decisions that have been made regarding employee-employer relationships have been very broad. They found that the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 prohibited supervisors from meeting with workers in committees to discuss workplace issues like health and safety, working conditions, family leave, and other important areas of mutual concern. The TEAM Act simply establishes a safe harbor in Federal labor law to permit these types of employee involvement programs, where workers meet with supervisors to discuss issues of mutual concern, to continue to exist without running afoul of Federal labor law.”