NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

102 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
chosen representatives of its employees. 82 In holding that the employer
had not fulfilled its duty to bargain collectively, the Board
said:
Under the Act, it is the respondent's duty to bargain collectively with the
representative selected by a majority of its employees for the purposes of
collective bargaining. The respondent cannot legally refuse to negotiate with
the Union because it prefers that another represent it. It cannot legally refuse
to negotiate with the International Association selected by a majority of its
employees to represent them because it prefers to deal with the Local of the
Association. Its duty is to negotiate in good faith with whatever agent or
agency a majority of its employees have selected.
4. THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT
The net result sought by the collective bargaining provision is the
making of a collective bargaining agreement. The Board has repeatedly
affirmed the principle asserted in Matter of St. Joseph Stock
Yards Company, 83 that the act imposes upon the employer not only
the duty to meet with the duly designated representatives of its employees
and to bargain with them in good faith in a genuine attempt
to achieve an understanding on the proposals and counter-proposals
advanced, but also the duty, if an understanding should be reached,
to embody that understanding in a binding agreement. 84 The Board
has pointed out that—
The term collective bargaining denotes in common usage, as well as in
legal terminology, negotiations looking toward a collective agreement. If the
employer adheres to a preconceived determination not to enter into any agreement
with the representatives of his employees, as we have found here, then his
meeting and discussing the issues with them, however frequently, does not fulfill
his obligations under the Act. a
In this connection the Board has made it clear that "The final
attainment of an understanding and the signing of the contract embodying
the fruits of this understanding are part and parcel of the
process of collective bargaining. The - contract or agreement is part
of and the culmination of the successful negotiations, and not a
82 In Matter of McNeely & Price Company and National Leather 1Vorkers Association,
Local No. 30, of the C. I. 0., 6 N. L. R. B. 800. evidences of a similar determination on
the part of the employer were found in its equivocal answer to the question of whether
it would recognize the union as the representative of the employees, in its suggestion that
the employees join a union of another national affiliation, and in the fact that the employer
reviled the union as "radical and communistic."
s3 Matter of St. Joseph Stock Yards Company and Amalgamated Meat Cutters & Butcher
Workmen of North America, Local Union No. 159, 2 N. L. R. B. 39. In that case the
Board said—
"An assertion that collective bargaining connotes no more than discussions designed
to clarify employer policy and does not include negotiation looking toward the adoption
of a binding agreement between employer and employees is contrary to any realistic view
of labor relations. The development of those relations had progressed too far when the
Act was adopted to permit the conclusion that the Congress intended to safeguard only
the barren right of discussion. The protection to organization of employees afforded by
the first four subdivisions of Section 8 can have meaning only when the ultimate goal iS
viewed as the stabilization of working conditions through genuine bargaining and agreements
between equals. That such is the goal is made clear in section 1 of the act.
wherein the policy of the United States is stated to be the protection of self-organization
of workers and the designation of their representatives for the purpose of negotiating the
terms and conditions of their employment."
84 Matter of National Licorice Company and Bakery and Confectionery Workers International
Union of America, Local Union 405, Greater New York. and Vicinity, 7 N. L. R. B.,
537 • Matter of Globe Cotton Mills and Textile Workers Organizing Committee. 6 N. L.
R. B. 461 ; Matter of Federal Carton Corporation and New York Printing Pressmen's
Union, No. 51. 5 N. L. R. B. 879. In Matter of United States Stamping Company and
Enamel Workers Union, No. 18630, 5 N. L. R. B. 172. the employer refused to negotiate concerning
an agreement. The. Board indicated that negotiations which do not look toward
an agreement do not constitute the collective bargaining envisaged by the act.
8, Matter of Globe Cotton Mills and Textile Workers Organizing Committee, 6 N. L.
R. B. 461.