View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU Cleveland State Law Review Law Journals 1979 Industrial Democracy: America's Unfulfilled Promise Clyde W. Summers Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev Part of the Labor and Employment Law Commons How does access to this work benefit oy u? Let us know! Recommended Citation Clyde W. Summers, Industrial Democracy: America's Unfulfilled Promise, 28 Clev. St. L. Rev. 29 (1979) available at https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev/vol28/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cleveland State Law Review by an authorized editor of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ARTICLES INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY: AMERICA'S UNFULFILLED PROMISE* CLYDE W. SUMMERS"* I. THE PROMISE MADE N 1797, WHEN ALBERT GALLATIN, LATER SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, established a profit sharing plan in his glass works, he declared, "The democratic principle on which this nation was founded should not be restricted to the political process, but should be applied to the industrial operation as well."' The theme that our system of political democracy should be matched by a system of industrial democracy has been an irrepressible one in our history.2 This theme is not ours alone, for in every political democracy there is recognition that decisions of the work place may be more important to the worker than decisions in the legislative halls.3 Democratic principles demand that workers have a voice in the decisions that control their working lives; human dignity requires that workers not be subject to oppressive conditions or arbitrary actions.