Source: https://m.openjurist.org/397/us/99
Timestamp: 2020-07-15 18:47:15
Document Index: 713295702

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 8', '§ 10', '§ 158', '§ 160', '§ 158']

397 US 99 Porter Company v. National Labor Relations Board | OpenJurist
397 U.S. 99 - Porter Company v. National Labor Relations Board
397 US 99 Porter Company v. National Labor Relations Board
90 S.Ct. 821
25 L.Ed.2d 146
H. K. PORTER COMPANY, Inc., etc., Petitioner,
'The committee wishes to dispel any possible false impression that this bill is designed to compel the making of agreements or to permit governmental supervision of their terms. It must be stressed that the duty to bargain collectively does not carry with it the duty to reach an agreement, because the essence of collective bargaining is that either party shall be free to decide whether proposals made to it are satisfactory.'1
The discussions on the floor of Congress consistently reflected this same understanding.2
(U)nless Congress writes into the law guides for the Board to follow, the Board may attempt to carry this process still further and seek to control more and more the terms of collective-bargaining agreements.'3
'For the purposes of this section, to bargain collectively is the performance of the mutual obligation of the employer and the representative of the employees to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, or the negotiation of an agreement, or any question arising thereunder, and the execution of a written contract incorporating any agreement reached if requested by either party, but such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession.'4
In reaching this conclusion the Court of Appeals held that § 8(d) did not forbid the Board from compelling agreement. That court felt that '(s)ection 8(d) defines collective bargaining and relates to a determination of whether a * * * violation has occurred and not to the scope of the remedy which may be necessary to cure violations which have already occurred.' 128 U.S.App.D.C., at 348, 389 F.2d, at 299. We may agree with the Court of Appeals that as a matter of strict, literal interpretation that section refers only to deciding when a violation has occurred, but we do not agree that that observation justifies the conclusion that the remedial powers of the Board are not also limited by the same considerations that led Congress to enact § 8(d). It is implicit in the entire structure of the Act that the Board acts to oversee and referee the process of collective bargaining, leaving the results of the contest to the bargaining strengths of the parties. It would be anomalous indeed to hold that while § 8(d) prohibits the Board from relying on a refusal to agree as the sole evidence of bad-faith bargaining, the Act permits the Board to compel agreement in that same dispute. The Board's remedial powers under § 10 of the Act are broad, but they are limited to carrying out the policies of the Act itself.5 One of these fundamental policies is freedom of contract. While the parties' freedom of contract is not absolute under the Act,6 allowing the Board to compel agreement when the parties themselves are unable to agree would violate the fundamental premise on which the Act is based—private bargaining under governmental supervision of the procedure alone, without any official compulsion over the actual terms of the contract.
29 U.S.C. § 158(d) (emphasis added).
'If * * * the Board shall be of the opinion that any person * * * has engaged in or is engaging in any * * * unfair labor practice, then the Board shall state its findings of fact and shall issue and cause to be served on such person an order requiring such person to cease and desist from such unfair labor practice, and to take such affirmative action * * * as will effectuate the policies of (the Act).' 29 U.S.C. § 160(c).
For example, the employer is not free to choose any employee representative he wants, and the representative designated by the majority of the employees represents the minority as well. The Act itself prohibits certain contractual terms relating to refusals to deal in the goods of others, 29 U.S.C. § 158(e). Various practices in enforcing the Act may to some extent limit freedom to contract as the parties desire. See generally Wellington, Freedom of Contract and the Collective Bargaining Agreement, 112 U.Pa.L.Rev. 467 (1964).