In 1992, the Teamsters brought an unfair labor practice charge against a company called Electromation. The charge alleged that Electromation’s five-employee “action committees” were employer-dominated labor organizations, the existence of which violates section 8(a)(2) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

The resulting National Labor Relations Board (NLRB case became a major event in the world of labor law, and many organizations filed briefs trying to influence the agency’s decision. It was so big that the New York Times published three articles about it and included a note about it in the paper’s Business Digest (I, II, III, IV).

Companies feared that an adverse ruling would render tens of thousands of existing employee participation programs illegal, forcing the companies to abandon them or open themselves up to charges filed by unions attempting to organize their workers. Unions hoped that such a ruling would help reinvigorate a union movement that had lost so many members in the prior couple of decades.