Cite as: 526 U. S. 86 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
for the purpose of supplementing, their basic, comprehensive labor contract. In other words, the basic collective-bargaining agreement is the only appropriate destination at which negotiations might "arriv[e]." The Agency adds that "collective bargaining agreement" is a term of art, which only and always refers to basic labor contracts, not to mid-term agreements.
Further, while the Agency acknowledges that there is a duty to bargain midterm in the private sector, see NLRB v. Jacobs Manufacturing Co., 196 F. 2d 680 (CA2 1952), it argues that this private-sector duty is based upon language in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) that is different in significant respects from the language in the Statute here. The Agency explains that the NLRA defines private-sector collective bargaining to include (1) negotiation "with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, or [(2)] the negotiation of an agreement, or any question arising thereunder." 29 U. S. C. § 158(d) (emphasis added). The "or," under this view, indicates that private-sector employers have a comprehensive duty to "bargain collectively" whether or not such bargaining is part of "the negotiation of an agreement" leading to "written contract."
In our view, these linguistic arguments, while logical, make too much of too little. One can easily read "arriving at a collective bargaining agreement" as including an agreement reached at the conclusion of midterm bargaining, particularly because the Statute itself does no more than define the relevant term "collective bargaining agreement" in a circular way—as "an agreement entered into as a result of collective bargaining." 5 U. S. C. § 7103(a)(8). Nor have we found any statute, judicial opinion, agency document, or treatise that says whether the words "collective bargaining agreement" are words of art that must necessarily exclude midterm agreements. Finally, the linguistic differences between the NLRA and the FSLMRS tell us little, particularly given the fact that the two labor statutes, like collective bar-
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