110
OTMConnor, J., dissenting
the Statute is entitled to less deference. See Good Samaritan Hospital v. Shalala, supra, at 417. This lesser standard of deference seems particularly appropriate here because we have recognized some limits on the FLRA's interpretive powers. See Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms v. FLRA, 464 U. S., at 108. Accordingly, we should endeavor to find the most plausible construction of the Federal Labor Statute and examine the Secretary's current interpretation in light of this construction.
The FLRA currently interprets the Federal Labor Statute to impose a duty on federal agencies to negotiate midterm those union-initiated proposals that are not covered in the term agreement unless the union has clearly waived its right to bargain midterm. See Brief for Petitioner FLRA in No. 97-1243, at 18-20; see Department of Navy, Marine Corps Logistics Base v. FLRA, 962 F. 2d 48, 56 (CADC 1992) (outlining FLRA position). This is not, however, the most plausible construction of the Statute. For the reasons previously discussed, there is no language in the Statute expressing a general duty to bargain midterm. Moreover, to the extent that the FLRA has codified exceptions to a generalized duty to bargain midterm, those exceptions are defined out of whole cloth; there is nothing in the text of the Federal Labor Statute that suggests limits on a duty to bargain mid-term. For these reasons, even if there were some ambiguity in the Federal Labor Statute, I would hold that the agency's interpretation of the Federal Labor Statute is inferior to the natural, and most plausible, reading of that Statute—that there is no general duty to bargain midterm. See Good Samaritan Hospital v. Shalala, supra, at 417; INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, supra, at 446-447, and n. 30. I respectfully dissent and would affirm the decision of the Fourth Circuit.
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