Do employees in a US Employee Ownership Trust have shareholder voting rights, and why not just let them elect the board directly?

In a US Employee Ownership Trust, the trust, not individual employees, is the company's legal shareholder, so employees usually do not hold personal voting rights to elect the board. Their voice is built into the trust instrument instead, typically through a stewardship committee, the board, and a trust enforcer, often with the right to nominate or elect who fills those seats. It is built this way for the asset lock: holding shares in trust for a fixed purpose keeps the company employee-owned and resistant to sale, which freely votable, sellable individual shares would undermine.