To avoid the NLRB’s cease-and-desist order, what should Amalgamated’s management have done differently in using problem-solving teams?

Amalgamated Tool, a nonunion manufacturer of auto parts in Michigan, suffered such significant financial losses in 2006 that it froze the pay of all its employees to conserve cash. The company also asked its employees to pay a larger share of their health insurance costs. The employees were extremely upset by these actions, and both morale and productivity declined. To improve morale, Amalgamated’s management decided to form several problem-solving employee teams. After meeting to discuss the problems at Amalgamated, the teams presented management with suggestions on how to provide pay raises and health insurance to employees fairly and efficiently. Each problemsolving team had a leader elected by the other team members to present the team’s suggestions, but only about 20 percent of Amalgamated’s employees were asked to serve on a team. The teams’ suggestions were largely adopted by management, and morale and efficiency went up the next year.
On behalf of some dissatisfied Amalgamated employees, a local union filed an unfair labor practice claim stating that management had illegally used the problem-solving teams to form a management-dominated union, in violation of a provision of the Wagner Act that states: “It is an unfair labor practice for an employer to dominate or interfere with the formation of any labor organization or contribute financial support to it.”
The National Labor Relations Board sustained the union’s position and ordered Amalgamated to cease and desist using its problem-solving teams.