Opinion ID: 318171
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Plan of Employee Participation and Corporate Management

Text: 224 The company was organized in 1922 under the 'Eagan Plan,' envisioning an ideal of cooperation between labor and management. The plan called for the control of business policies to be vested in a board of directors elected by the stockholders. A Board of Management, composed of corporate officers elected by the Board of Directors, conducted the day to day business of the company. The unique feature of the Eagan Plan was the Board of Operatives, composed of non-supervisory personnel elected by employees of the company. A main function of the Board of Operatives has been to advise the Board of Management on matters affecting the welfare of the employees and to provide a channel of communication between management and the employees. 225 During the lifetime of Eagan, candidates for election to the Board of Operatives had to be white males over twenty-one years of age, American citizens, and employed by the company in a non-supervisory capacity for three or more years. The racial restriction continued after Eagan's death. The district court found that Eagan had intended that result, although the codicil to his will did not by its terms restrict membership to whites. 157 226 As an adjunct to the Board of Management and the Board of Operatives, an all black board of employees evolved to advise the other two boards on matters affecting the interest of the black employees. Voting and membership on the Board of Directors of the ACIPCO Colored YMCA and its successor, the Auxiliary Board, created in 1935, was restricted to black employees. The district court found that the Auxiliary Board would not have originated except for the racial restriction on the membership of the Board of Operatives. 227 From 1922 until January, 1970, the Board of Operatives and the Auxiliary Board functioned separately under the provisions of the Eagan Plan and the by-laws of the corporation. A codicil to Eagan's will had bequeathed all the outstanding common stock of the company to the members of the Board of Management and the members of the Board of Operatives, jointly, and to their successors in office. The Boards acted as trustees for the benefit of the employees and future employees of the company and their families. Similar status was not conferred on the members of the Auxiliary Board.