Department of Defense v. FLRA, 510 U.S. 487, 17 (1994)

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Cite as: 510 U. S. 487 (1994)

Opinion of the Court

construe, including the Labor Statute. Cf. Connecticut Nat. Bank v. Germain, 503 U. S. 249, 253 (1992) ("We have stated time and again that courts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there").

Second, respondents fear that our ruling will allow agencies, acting pursuant to the Privacy Act, to refuse to provide unions with other employee records, such as disciplinary reports and performance appraisals, that the unions need in order to perform their duties as exclusive bargaining representatives. This concern is not presented in this case, however, and we do not address it.

Finally, respondents contend that our decision creates an unnecessary and unintended disparity between public and private sector unions. While private sector unions assert-edly are entitled to receive employee home address lists from employers under the National Labor Relations Act, as interpreted by the National Labor Relations Board,9 respondents claim that federal sector unions now will be needlessly barred from obtaining this information, despite the lack of any indication that Congress intended such a result. See Department of Treasury, 884 F. 2d, at 1457-1461 (R. Ginsburg, J., concurring). We do not question that, as a general matter, private sector labor law may provide guidance in parallel public sector matters. This fact has little relevance here, however, for unlike private sector employees, federal employees enjoy the protection of the Privacy Act, and that statute prohibits the disclosure of the address lists sought in this case. To the extent that this prohibition leaves public sector unions in a position different from that of their private sector counterparts, Congress may correct the disparity. Cf. Sedima, S. P. R. L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U. S. 479, 499 (1985).

9 See, e. g., NLRB v. Associated Gen. Contractors of Cal., Inc., 633 F. 2d 766, 773 (CA9 1980), cert. denied, 452 U. S. 915 (1981); NLRB v. Pearl Bookbinding Co., 517 F. 2d 1108, 1113 (CA1 1975).

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