Law Commons^™

Impasse In Collective Bargaining, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

The word "impasse" is an important part of the working vocabulary of all practitioners and students of labor relations. Although numerous trial examiner reports, board orders, court decisions and commentators have used the term impasse, the concept has never been discussed at length. In NLRB v. TexTan, Inc., the Fifth Circuit described "impasse" as "a state of facts in which the parties, despite the best of faith, are simply deadlocked." The Tex-Tan definition, while accurate, is of limited practical significance. It adds little to the definition of impasse that might be found in almost any standard desk dictionary. The only …