NLRB v. Borg-Warner Corp.

NLRB v. Borg-Warner Corp.
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided May 5, 1958
Full case name	NLRB v. Borg-Warner Corp.
Citations	356 U.S. 342 (more)
Holding
Insisting that non-mandatory subjects must be bargained for before the acceptance of a collective bargaining agreement is an unfair labor practice.
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · Felix Frankfurter William O. Douglas · Harold H. Burton Tom C. Clark · John M. Harlan II William J. Brennan Jr. · Charles E. Whittaker
Case opinions
Majority	Burton
Concur/dissent	Frankfurter
Dissent	Harlan, joined by Clark, Whittacker
Laws applied
National Labor Relations Act

NLRB v. Borg-Warner Corp., 356 U.S. 342 (1958), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that insisting that non-mandatory subjects must be bargained for before the acceptance of a collective bargaining agreement is an unfair labor practice.^[1][2]

Essentially, the opinion of the Court was that the NLRA's good faith bargaining clause required employers to agree to contracts where the remaining disputes were over non-mandatory subjects. In dissent, Harlan contended that the Act had no such affirmative requirement. His reading of the statute was that it did not prohibit good-faith bargaining over non-mandatory subjects.^[2]

The NLRB and courts determined which aspects of a contract were non-mandatory. Therefore, in practice, courts could hold that certain subjects were non-mandatory and the Borg-Warner rule would prevent those subjects from being included in union contracts at all.^[2]

• Text of NLRB v. Borg-Warner Corp., 356 U.S. 342 (1958) is available from: Cornell Findlaw Justia