Williams, C.J.
Introduction
The narrow issue in this case is whether the right to grievance arbitration of an unjust discharge claim survives the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement by which it is created.
The resolution of this question requires us to consider fundamental principles of contract and labor law. Foremost among these is that the right to arbitration is necessarily a creation of the par[7]*7ties’ intent as expressed in their collective bargaining agreement. A corollary is the right by the parties in their collective bargaining agreement to terminate the right to arbitration.
This question is one of first impression in the Michigan Supreme Court, and it has not been ruled on directly by the United States Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court case which comes closest to answering the question presented here concerned a dispute over severance pay rather than an unjust discharge.1 That case has spawned a number of lower federal court cases, with disparate results. Several jurisdictions have recognized that the parties’ original contractual intent may be effectuated by ordering postcontract arbitration of disputes regarding the kinds of rights which can accrue or vest during the contract’s term, but which may not ripen for enjoyment until after expiration.
We find this reasoning persuasive. Therefore, we hold that the right to grievance arbitration does survive the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement when the dispute concerns rights which can accrue or vest during the contract’s term.
The right not to be discharged except for just cause in this case is not the kind of right which can accrue or vest during the contract’s term. Therefore, Ms. Jaklinski’s right to arbitrate her discharge did not survive the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement.
Ms. Jaklinski cannot rightly claim that her right survived the agreement’s expiration because it was a mandatory subject of bargaining which the employer could not alter prior to impasse. First, her grievance arose and was denied after impasse was reached and after the employer’s duty [8]*8had terminated. Second, such an "unfair labor practice” claim is within the exclusive jurisdiction of MERC.
Ms. Jaklinski cannot rightly claim that her rights under 1969 PA 312 were frozen in place during the pendency of the interest arbitration invoked by her union, because they had expired long before Act 312 was invoked.
For these reasons, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and reinstate the circuit court’s order enjoining arbitration.
I. Facts
Diedre Jaklinski was appointed to the office of deputy sheriff in the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department in 1977. She was initially represented for purposes of collective bargaining by and was a member of the Ottawa County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association. However, in October, 1979, the Police Officers Association of Michigan (poam) became her bargaining agent.
The collective bargaining agreement between the county and the sheriff (referred to here as the joint employers) and the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association at the time Jaklinski was appointed gave the joint employers the right to discharge or fail to reappoint employees, but only for just cause. The agreement defined a "grievance” as "a claim, reasonably and sensibly founded, of a violation of this agreement and/or violation of the rules and regulations of the Ottawa County Sheriff Department and/or Ottawa County.” A grievant and the association were given the right to request binding arbitration of "grievances,” but the arbitrator’s decision was limited to the application or the [9]*9interpretation of the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement or the written rules and regulations of the employer.2
[10]*10The following chronology of events is set forth for the reader’s convenience.
December 31, 1979... The collective bargaining agreement expired; negotiations between the joint employers and poam for a new collective bargaining agreement continued.
April 14, 1980....... The mediator declared that the parties’ negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement were at an impasse.
April 29, 1980....... The poam petitioned the Michigan Employment Relations Commission for interest arbitration under 1969 PA 312.
June 9, 1980 ........ The poam filed an amended petition before the merc.
December, 1980 ..... Jaklinski received notice that she would not be reappointed as deputy sheriff at the end of her term on December 31, 1980.
December 9, 1980____ Jaklinski and poam filed a grievance with the joint employers contesting the failure to reappoint her.
January 1, 1981..... Jaklinski’s termination became effective.
February 27, 1981 ... The joint employers filed suit in Ottawa Circuit Court, seeking a stay of Jaklinski’s grievance arbitration.
March, 1981......... The Act 312 interest arbitration hearing was held.
March 31, 1981...... merc appointed an arbitrator to arbitrate Jaklinski’s grievance at the request of the poam and Jaklinski.
August 28, 1981 ..... The Act 312 interest arbitration award was issued and the new collective bargaining agreement became effective.
[11]*11March 5, 1982....... Muskegon Circuit Judge Piercey enjoined the arbitration of Jaklinski’s grievance.3
The December 9, 1980, request for grievance arbitration alleged that the failure to reappoint Ms. Jaklinski was not for "just cause,” in violation of the former collective bargaining agreement. The joint employers denied the request, claiming that Jaklinski’s right not to be refused reappointment except for just cause and her right to arbitrate her grievance did not survive the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. The Ottawa Circuit Court agreed with the joint employers that the constraints placed upon the sheriff by contract were no longer effective at the time Jaklinski filed her grievance. No relief was available under the new collective bargaining agreement because the grievance procedure and arbitration clause of the new agreement were not given effect retroactively to January 1, 1980.
In an unpublished opinion, the Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the circuit court and ordered the parties to arbitrate the grievance. We granted the joint employers’ application for leave to appeal, instructing the parties to include among the issues to be briefed:
(1) whether Michigan should adopt from federal labor law a rule that an employer’s obligation to arbitrate grievances in a collective bargaining agreement lapses with the termination of the agreement and (2) if so, whether such arbitration is revived by a petition for interest arbitration under 1969 PA 312, MCL 423.233; MSA 17.455(33). [419 Mich 934 (1984).]_
[12]*12II. Unavailing Claimed Sources of the Right to Arbitration
Jaklinski’s argument that she is entitled to arbitrate her failure to be reappointed is three-pronged. First, she argues that her right to arbitration is a mandatory subject of bargaining which the joint employers had a duty not to unilaterally alter prior to an impasse in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, and which therefore survived termination of the contract. Second, she contends that her right to arbitration was a "condition of employment” frozen in place during the pendency of "Act 312” interest arbitration. Third, she urges us to adopt lower federal court decisions holding that a "presumption of arbitrability” arises whenever a collective bargaining agreement fails to state expressly that the duty to arbitrate terminates automatically with the agreement.
A. Arbitration as a Mandatory Subject of Bargaining
The first prong of Jaklinski’s argument is that because grievance and arbitration procedures were "mandatory subjects of bargaining” over which the parties were obligated to bargain in good faith the joint employers could not unilaterally change the right to grievance arbitration. It is argued that the right thus survived the hiatus between the expiration of the old agreement and the invocation of Act 312 arbitration. This was also the theory accepted by the Court of Appeals when it ruled that Jaklinski was entitled to arbitrate her failure to be reappointed.
It is true that public employers are required to bargain in good faith to impasse regarding "wages, [13]*13hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.” MCL 423.215; MSA 17.455(15). Because "wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment” are regarded as mandatory subjects of bargaining, once a party negotiating a collective bargaining • agreement proposes such a subject, neither party may take unilateral action regarding it prior to impasse. Detroit Police Officers Ass’n v Detroit, 391 Mich 44, 54-55; 214 NW2d 803 (1974). Grievance and arbitration procedures are mandatory subjects of bargaining. Pontiac Police Officers Ass’n v Pontiac, 397 Mich 674, 681; 246 NW2d 831 (1976).
Under this line of reasoning, it logically follows that as part of its duty to bargain in good faith the joint employers had a duty prior to reaching impasse not to unilaterally alter the grievance arbitration mechanism in place at the time the contract expired. However, Jaklinski’s grievance arose and was denied long after the parties had negotiated to impasse, at a time when the joint employers no longer had a duty not to alter the grievance arbitration mechanism.
In addition, these duties are created in the public employment relations act, and are only enforceable under the mechanism set forth in the pera by the Legislature. Breach of these duties is an unfair labor practice, and requests for an order to "cease and desist” from such practices are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Michigan Employment Relations Commission. MCL 423.216; MSA 17.455(16). Lamphere Schools v Lamphere Federation of Teachers, 400 Mich 104, 118; 252 NW2d 818 (1977). Jaklinski’s claim in circuit court must be based on a viable contractual right to arbitration, and her claim based on statutory rights to "good faith bargaining” must be ad[14]*14dressed to the merc.4 We thus reject the first prong of Jaklinski’s argument.
B. Arbitration Under Act 312
The second prong of Jaklinski’s argument is that her right to arbitration was a "condition of employment” frozen in place during the pendency of Act 312 interest arbitration. It is helpful to distinguish at the outset between "grievance” and "interest” arbitration. The former involves arbitration of disputes arising under an existing collective bargaining agreement; the latter involves arbitration of the terms to be included in a new collective bargaining agreement after the parties have negotiated to impasse. Binding interest arbitration is the statutory right of fire fighters and police officers (including sheriff’s deputies) and their public employers. 1969 PA 312, MCL 423.231; MSA 17.455(31).
After "Act 312” interest arbitration is invoked, neither party to the dispute may alter existing "wages, hours, [or] other conditions of employment” without the consent of the other during the pendency of proceedings before the arbitration panel. MCL 423.243; MSA 17.455(43). These statutes evince the Legislature’s particular concern that public employees who provide vital services to their communities, and who are therefore deprived of the right to strike, have a forum available to [15]*15resolve labor disputes which is more expeditious and less expensive than the courts.
This statutory scheme does not, however, support Jaklinski’s claim that she is entitled to arbitrate her failure to be reappointed. First, the compulsory arbitration provided for in Act 312 is not available to individuals with grievances regarding the interpretation of an existing or expired collective bargaining agreement. Local 1518, AFSCME v St Clair Co Sheriff, 407 Mich 1, 12; 281 NW2d 313 (1979). Second, the "wages, hours, [or] other conditions of employment” which are frozen in place during the pendency of Act 312 arbitration are those which exist at the time such arbitration is invoked. Therefore, Jaklinski’s right to arbitrate her failure to be reappointed could not be preserved under Act 312 unless it survived the expiration of the old collective bargaining agreement on December 31, 1979, and then remained viable during the hiatus between that date and the invocation of Act 312 arbitration in April, 1980. Lastly, nothing in these statutes indicates that invocation of Act 312 proceedings should "revive” rights which terminated at the expiration of an old collective bargaining agreement. Thus, we conclude that the second prong of Jaklinski’s argument is without merit unless it can be shown that her rights survived the hiatus between January 1 and April 29, 1980, a proposition we next examine.
III. Federal Law: Nolde Brothers and its Progeny
The third prong of Jaklinski’s argument is that we should adopt from the common law of federal labor relations a rule that a "presumption of arbitrability” arises whenever a collective bargaining agreement fails to state expressly that the [16]*16duty to arbitrate terminates automatically with the agreement. It is true that some lower federal courts have adopted the presumption advocated by Jaklinski, but it is equally true that others have rejected it. Therefore an extensive discussion of the federal cases is necessary.
The United States Supreme Court has held that the right to arbitrate a severance pay grievance survives the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement. Nolde Bros, Inc v Bakery & Confectionery Workers Union, 430 US 243; 97 S Ct 1067; 51 L Ed 2d 300 (1977). In Nolde, the collective bargaining agreement terminated; thereafter, during negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, the employer closed its plant. The expired agreement contained a clause entitling employees to binding arbitration of "any grievance,” and a clause entitling them to severance pay on the termination of their employment. The employees sought arbitration of their claims to severance pay. A majority of the Court rejected the employer’s argument that its duty to arbitrate necessarily expired with the collective bargaining agreement and ordered the parties to arbitrate.
We note at the outset the incongruence between the narrow holding in Nolde and the language which accompanied it. The Court held that under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement severance pay disputes were arbitrable following the expiration of the agreement. However, language in the opinion suggests two principal propositions. The first is that the right to grievance arbitration survives the expiration of any collective bargaining agreement whenever the dispute is over an obligation "arguably created” by the expired agreement. Id., p 252. The second proposition is that a "presumption of arbitrability” arises whenever the parties fail to state expressly that their [17]*17duty to arbitrate terminated automatically with the contract. Id., p 254. We see no reason to recognize such dicta.
The Court also developed weak rationales for its two propositions. The Court reasoned that the parties could have anticipated that they would be bound to arbitrate postcontract, because they drafted an unusually broad arbitration clause against the backdrop of a national labor policy favoring arbitration as a dispute settlement process. In addition, the Court presumed that because the parties expressed their preference for arbitration during the contract’s term, they would not change their opinion about the advantages of arbitration after their contract expired. The Court did not attempt to discern the actual intent of the parties.
The disparity between the actual holding on the facts in Nolde and its language has undoubtedly been a source of confusion to the lower federal courts. Subsequent decisions demonstrate a split in opinion as to how broadly or narrowly Nolde should be read. There appear to be four discrete approaches to this problem, although a given court may rely on or mention more than one such approach.
The first approach is that taken by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which accepts a broad interpretation of Nolde. That court follows the first proposition of Nolde and holds that where the expired collective bargaining agreement contains a broad arbitration clause, and where the dispute "arises under” the expired agreement, the duty to arbitrate survives the expiration of the agreement. Federated Metals Corp v United Steelworkers, 648 F2d 856 (CA 3, 1981), cert den 454 US 1031 (1981) (employer ordered to arbitrate pension benefits dispute de[18]*18spite fact that the pension claimants were ineligible at the time the agreement expired); United Steelworkers v Fort Pitt Steel Casting Div, 635 F2d 1071 (CA 3, 1980), cert den 451 US 985 (1981) (presumption of arbitrability not overcome by clause in contract that defined "employees” as workers for whom the union acted as representative "during the life of this Agreement,” and employer ordered to arbitrate severance pay dispute).
A second approach has been to rebut the presumption raised in the second proposition by focusing on the breadth of the arbitration clause and other expressions of the parties’ actual intent. Arbitration of a "no just cause” termination was denied where the collective bargaining agreement defined "grievance” as a dispute arising "during the term of the Agreement.” General Warehousemen & Employees Union v J C Penney Co, 484 F Supp 130, 132 (WD Pa, 1980). Similarly, arbitration was denied where 1) the arbitrators served only for the "duration of this agreement,” 2) express provision was made in the contract for post-expiration continuation of employees’ health and insurance benefits, indicating the parties knew how to provide for survival of benefits when they so desired, and 3) in negotiating the new collective bargaining agreement, the union sought a clause allowing arbitration of disputes on the basis of events occurring prior to the effective date of the new contract, indicating the union’s acknowledgment that arbitration would not be available otherwise. Garland Coal & Mining Co v United Mine Workers of America, 596 F Supp 747 (WD Ark, 1984).
A third approach has been to side-step the language of both propositions by examining whether a contractual no-strike clause also survives the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. [19]*19A no-strike clause has been described by the United States Supreme Court as the quid pro quo for an employer’s agreement to submit grievances to binding arbitration. Boys Markets, Inc v Retail Clerks Union, 398 US 235, 248; 90 S Ct 1583; 26 L Ed 2d 199 (1970) (enjoined strike in violation of no-strike clause where grievance was subject to arbitration). Thus, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that ,a union’s engaging in a strike not forbidden by a no-strike clause did not alter the employer’s duty to arbitrate grievances arising after the labor contract expired. United Steelworkers v Fort Pitt Steel, supra, pp 1076-1078. See also General Warehousemen, supra, pp 136-137.
Nolde cannot reasonably be read as relying on the quid pro quo concept because the Court made no mention of any "no-strike” clause and because there was no open plant capable of being struck. The dispute sought to be arbitrated involved severance pay allegedly due as a result of the plant closing. The duty to arbitrate was imposed upon the employer because of its presumed intent, not as the quid pro quo for any agreement on the part of the union not to strike an already closed plant. See Textile Workers of America v Columbia Mills, Inc, 471 F Supp 527, 531 (ND NY, 1978) (ordering arbitration of grievance in spite of the fact that collective bargaining agreement had terminated and employer’s operations had ceased).5
The fourth and most persuasive approach has been to recognize that Nolde is factually limited to grievances regarding contract rights which can vest or accrue while a collective bargaining agreement is in effect, but which may not ripen until [20]*20after its expiration.6 In Oil, Chemical & Atomic Worker’s Int’l Union, Local No 4-23 v American Petrofina Co of Texas, 586 F Supp 643 (ED Tex, 1984), rev’d 759 F2d 512 (CA 5, 1985),7 an employee was discharged following the expiration of a collective bargaining agreement which contained both a "no termination except for just cause” clause and an arbitration clause. The court noted that in Nolde, the grievance concerned severance pay, a benefit already in place prior to the contract’s termination. The court interpreted cases subsequent to Nolde as requiring arbitration where 1) the dispute centered on events which took place totally or in part prior to contract termination, or 2) the dispute involved accrued rights, such as pension or disability benefits. Id., p 647. Because the dispute before it did not fit within either category, the court denied arbitration. The court expressly rejected the broad reading given Nolde in Fort Pitt, supra:
[I]t is apparent that [Fort Pitt’s] standard is simply an overbroad misinterpretation. Other decisions have limited Nolde to apply only to accrued rights and benefits; and this Court believes this is the proper view. Otherwise, almost every clause and term of a collective bargaining agreement would stay in effect after the agreement was terminated. This certainly would not reflect the in[21]*21tention of the parties; but it certainly would lead to a raft of litigation. [Petroñna, supra, pp 648-649.]
Disputes involving accrued but unused rights were also held arbitrable after the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement in Erie Co Geriatric Center v Local No 2666, AFSCME, 464 F Supp 561 (WD Pa, 1978), aff'd 622 F2d 578 (CA 3, 1980) and 716 F2d 890 (CA 3, 1983). There the arbitration clause in the collective bargaining agreement defined an arbitrable grievance as "a dispute concerning the interpretation, application, or alleged violation of a specific term or provision of this agreement.” Id., p 565. The court reasoned that the breadth of the arbitration clause evinced the parties’ intent that the clause survive the termination of the collective bargaining agreement. Noting that Nolde made clear that the timing of the demand for arbitration was not dispositive, the court ordered arbitration of disputes over workers’ accrued but unused seniority rights and benefits. Id., p 565. See also Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters v Brinks, Inc, 744 F2d 283, 286 (CA 2, 1984) (reading Nolde as requiring post-contract arbitration where the claims "arise under the collective bargaining agreement, but do not ripen until after it expires”); United Mine Workers v Jericol Mining, Inc, 492 F Supp 132, 136 (ED Ky, 1980) (eligibility for accruable vacation pay arbitrable following expiration of contract, regardless of whether the pay vested during life of agreement).
IV. Adopted Rule: Postcontract Arbitrability of Accrued or Vested Rights
For the reasons which follow, we adopt the [22]*22fourth approach outlined above and hold that the right to grievance arbitration survives the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement when the dispute concerns the kinds of rights which could accrue or vest during the term of the contract. We do so because such a rule recognizes and sustains both fundamental principles of law and the right of employees and employers to develop the common law of labor relations in their collective bargaining agreements.
The duty to arbitrate grievances arises from a contractual agreement between an employer and its employees. Absent such an agreement, neither party is obliged to submit to binding arbitration. Grand Rapids v Fraternal Order of Police, 415 Mich 628, 635, 644; 330 NW2d 52 (1982). Parties enter into arbitration agreements because they believe such dispute resolution is in their mutual self-interest. Parties usually also find it in their mutual self-interest to have their contractual obligations terminate at a specified time. They usually express this intent in an unambiguously phrased contract-duration clause.
Arbitration has become the favored procedure for resolving disputes in Michigan and federal labor relations because parties have expressed their preference for arbitration in their contracts. The federal labor policy favoring arbitration originated in the Labor Management Relations Act, which states that "[f]inal adjustment by a method agreed upon by the parties is declared to be the desirable method for settlement of grievance disputes arising over the application or interpretation of an existing collective bargaining agreement.” 29 USC 173(d) (emphasis added). This provision was interpreted by the United States Supreme Court [23]*23as creating a national policy favoring arbitration,8 but notably the statute refers not to arbitration but to a method "agreed upon by the parties.” Thus, "[i]t is by enforcing the agreement of the parties” to forego adjudication "that the law 'prefers’ arbitration.” Grand Rapids, supra, p 635.
The rule adopted here effectuates the parties’ original intent as expressed in their collective bargaining agreement. Usually parties have agreed that certain rights, such as pension, disability, seniority and vacation benefits, can accrue or vest during the life of the contract. The realization of some of these rights may be contingent upon a well-defined future event. An employee should not be deprived of already accrued or vested rights on the fortuity that they become ripe for enjoyment following the expiration of the agreement. Such an employee remains entitled to such rights and to the dispute resolution process the parties agreed to use to enforce them. While the substantive right to continue to accrue benefits terminates with the contract, the right to arbitrate disputes regarding benefits which may have already accrued or vested survives.
In adopting this rule, we follow the holding in Nolde, as circumscribed by its facts. We find persuasive the reasoning of those federal courts which have recognized Nolde’s factual limitation to contract rights which can accrue or vest during the contract’s term. We also note that this construction of Nolde has received approval among labor law scholars.9 We reject as unjustifiably expansive [24]*24those decisions which require postcontract arbitration whenever a dispute concerns an obligation arguably created by the expired agreement.
We also note that the rule adopted here neither contradicts policies established by the merc, nor deprives employees of protections vigorously guarded by the merc.10
Nothing stated here should be interpreted to mean that the parties to a collective bargaining agreement cannot explicitly agree to terms which depart from any rule announced here. They may agree to their own definition of "accrued” or [25]*25"vested” rights. They may explicitly agree to extend beyond contract expiration any substantive or procedural rights. They may explicitly agree that accrued and vested rights and the right to arbitrate concerning them also extinguish at contract termination.
We also wish to emphasize that in a suit to compel or enjoin arbitration, a court’s inquiry is limited to the question of arbitrability. While the rule announced here necessarily requires courts to learn some of the circumstances surrounding the substantive dispute, courts must assiduously avoid deciding the merits of the underlying dispute in the guise of deciding arbitrability. We caution courts to heed the admonition of the United States Supreme Court:
Since any attempt by a court to infer [a purpose to exclude the claim from arbitration] necessarily comprehends the merits, the court should view with suspicion an attempt to persuade it to become entangled in the construction of the substantive provisions of a labor agreement, even through the back door of interpreting the arbitration clause, when the alternative is to utilize the services of an arbitrator. [United Steelworkers v Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co, 363 US 574, 585; 80 S Ct 1347; 4 L Ed 2d 1409 (1960).]
Thus, while a court would act well within its power by deciding that a dispute must be submitted to postcontract arbitration because it involved the kind of contract right which accrued or vested during the life of the contract, it would usually act outside its legitimate province by deciding whether a particular employee’s rights had actually accrued or vested.
V. Application to Facts
It is clear that Jaklinski’s failure to be reap[26]*26pointed would have been arbitrable had it occurred prior to the contract’s expiration. However, nothing in the collective bargaining agreement evinces the parties’ intent to extend the right to arbitration beyond the unambiguously expressed termination date of December 31, 1979.
In addition, her right to be reappointed except for just cause was not the kind of right which could accrue over time or which could vest upon a particular contingency. See Marine Engineers Beneficial Ass’n v Puerto Rico Marine Management, Inc, 537 F Supp 813, 816 (SD NY, 1982) (distinguishing between claims to benefits arguably accruing during the term of the contract, which were arbitrable postcontract, and a "discharge without cause” claim, which was arbitrable only if the discharge occurred during the term of the contract). Thus, under the rule announced here, the joint employers cannot be ordered to arbitrate this dispute.
Jaklinski has argued that she is entitled to. postcontract arbitration because her discharge might have been based, in part, on conduct which took place while her "just cause” right was still viable.11 Because the just cause right "vested,” it is argued, when at least some of the offending conduct took place, the employee should be entitled to arbitrate the discharge.
We reject any attempt to analogize the right not to be discharged except for just cause and rights which can be said to have accrued or vested during the life of the contract for two reasons. First, the concept of "accrued or vested rights” cannot be stretched to include the right not to be discharged except for just cause. The right not to be dis[27]*27charged except for just cause is of equal strength at the moment the contract is signed and at the moment the contract terminates. It does not entitle its holder to increased benefits over time, nor is its exercise contingent on other events. Second, it would be ridiculous to extend the right to arbitrate beyond contract termination for an employee who may have committed a wrong during the contract’s term, when the right to arbitrate other kinds of clearly nonoffensive conduct terminates with the contract.
Moreover, we believe that ordering arbitration because a discharge might have been based on events which occurred prior to the contract’s expiration would have several unfortunate consequences. First, the substantive "just cause” right which the parties agreed would terminate with the contract would be continued indefinitely.12 Second, courts would necessarily have to inquire into the causes for a disputed discharge, and the risk that courts would decide the merits of a case in the guise of deciding arbitrability would be enhanced. Lastly, parties would be encouraged to litigate the question of arbitrability because most employees could allege that some conduct which occurred prior to contract termination contributed to the employer’s decision to discharge.13
Jaklinski has also based a claim for postcontract arbitration on the quid pro quo concept, described ante> pp 18-19, as the third approach taken by the federal courts in interpreting Nolde. Jaklinski argues that because public employees are denied the right to strike, MCL 423.202; MSA 17.455(2), their public employers should similarly be denied the right to refuse postcontract arbitration._
[28]*28This argument ignores important distinctions between the public and private sector. First, just as public employees are denied their most powerful economic weapon, the strike, so too are public employers denied their most powerful economic weapon, the shutdown or lockout. Second, in return for giving up the right to strike, at least some public employees, including Jaklinski, receive a benefit not enjoyed by private sector employees: the right to compulsory interest arbitration. MCL 423.231; MSA 17.455(31). Because of these distinctions, one cannot say that a public employer should be forced to submit to postcontract grievance arbitration as a quid pro quo for the public employees’ inability to strike.
The courts of New York have reached a similar conclusion. Poughkeepsie Bd. of Ed v Poughkeepsie Public School Teachers Ass’n, 349 NYS2d 47; 75 Misc 2d 931 (1973), aff'd 354 NYS2d 589; 44 AD2d 598 (1974). Poughkeepsie rejected a ruling by the New York Public Employment Relations Board that a public employer was obliged to maintain existing terms of employment during negotiations for a successor collective bargaining agreement. The board thought such an obligation a fitting quid pro quo for the no-strike obligation on the part of the public employees. The court ruled, however, that the Legislature had provided a detailed procedure for resolving deadlocks in collective bargaining and that thus a public employer need not comply with all terms of an expired collective bargaining agreement. See also Village of Lynbrook v Lynbrook Police Benevolent Ass’n, 385 NYS2d 484; 87 Misc 2d 57 (1976); Betts v Hoosic Valley Teachers’ Ass’n, 382 NYS2d 647; 86 Misc 2d 964 (1976).
Our holding does not preclude the possibility that employers and employees may be required under a proper contract to arbitrate disputes aris[29]*29ing out of postcontract discharges.14 Rather, we leave control over the question of arbitrability with the parties, from whose agreement the right to arbitration arises. Unions and employers can agree that the terms of employment during a hiatus between contracts will include the right to binding arbitration of some or all grievances. Similarly, they can agree that arbitration rights in the new collective bargaining agreement will be given effect retroactively to the date of the expiration of the old agreement.
Conclusion
Jaklinski’s right to arbitrate her claim that the Sheriff’s failure to reappoint her was not for just cause did not survive the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. For all the reasons above, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and reinstate the order of the circuit court enjoining arbitration.
Ryan, J., concurred with Williams, C.J.