39 U.S.C. § 1206
Section 1206 · Collective-bargaining agreements
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 37 court decisions — leading case McCollum v. Bolger (1986)
Most recently applied in Postal Police Officers Ass'n v. U.S. Postal Serv. (March 2019)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Collective-bargaining agreements between the Postal Service and bargaining representatives recognized under section 1203 of this title shall be effective for not less than 2 years.
(b) Collective-bargaining agreements between the Postal Service and bargaining representatives recognized under section 1203 may include any procedures for resolution by the parties of grievances and adverse actions arising under the agreement, including procedures culminating in binding third-party arbitration, or the parties may adopt any such procedures by mutual agreement in the event of a dispute.
(c) The Postal Service and bargaining representatives recognized under section 1203 may by mutual agreement adopt procedures for the resolution of disputes or impasses arising in the negotiation of a collective-bargaining agreement.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Use of Funds for Restructuring of Employee Compensation Practices
Pub. L. 98–396, title III, §303, Aug. 22, 1984, 98 Stat. 1422, provided that: “None of the funds made available to the United States Postal Service under this Act [see Tables for classification] or any other Act may be used to restructure employee compensation practices as in effect under the most recently effective collective bargaining agreement under section 1206 of title 39, United States Code, except in accordance with the results of procedures set forth in section 1207 of such title.”