Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

Type: Government Agency
On the web: http://www.fmcs.gov

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) knows peace is the answer in the workplace. The agency strives to improve labor-management relations and reduce work stoppages through conflict resolution. FMCS provides mediation services to federal, state, and local governments, as well as industry and communities. The organization also offers relationship development and training programs focusing on areas such as interpersonal communications, organizational development, and group facilitation. Formed under the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, the agency has more than 70 field and regional offices.

Officers:
Director: Arthur F. Rosenfeld
Deputy Director: Scot L. Beckenbaugh
CFO and Chief Administrative Officer: Fran Leonard

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) was created by the National Labor Relations Act of 1947 (better known as the Taft-Hartley Act) as an independent agency to preserve labor-management peace. The law was a response to the intense labor unrest that followed World War II. Intended primarily to reduce confrontational labor relations, the act also removed labor mediation from the Department of Labor.

The FMCS was granted less power than its predecessor. Intervention was limited to disputes affecting interstate commerce, which eliminated most state and local disputes. Railroad and airline disputes were also out of its purview.

President Harry S. Truman chose experienced labor relations expert Cyrus Ching, a Republican, as first FMCS director. The service handled 15,273 disputes and 1,296 strikes in its first year. Ching instituted Preventive Mediation (PM), a long-term program whereby mediators worked with unions and companies to improve human relations and contract administration.

During the Eisenhower administration, Director David Cole, an unconfirmed Truman holdover, was pressured by Congress to make political appointments to the mediator corps. He refused and set a precedent for non-partisan appointment of mediation personnel. In 1955 Joseph Finnegan was appointed director of FMCS; he viewed the FMCS primarily as a mediation body, not a labor relations policy leader. Finnegan focused on broadening the PM program.

Director William Simkin (1961–1969) collaborated with the secretaries of labor and handled many labor disputes himself. He also developed a corps of mediator "paratroopers" to respond quickly to crises.

During the administrations of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford, Secretary of Labor George Shultz asserted his authority. When Shultz left the department in 1970, Assistant Secretary W. J. Usery, a savvy mediator with roots in the labor movement, began to function as the labor adviser. Usery was named FMCS director in 1973 and served until 1976. Usery reinvigorated the agency, expanding its budget and staff and moving it out of the Labor Department's headquarters.

An unusually large number of labor disputes during the administration of James Earl Carter and the continued broadening of the FMCS's role put greater demands on a limited staff and budget. Director Wayne Horvitz (1977–1981) established an Office of Special Services; he also reached an understanding with Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall under which the FMCS retained preeminence in dispute intervention while emphasizing promotion of cooperative labor relations.

Throughout the 1970s the FMCS scope expanded. The Health Care Amendments of 1974 gave the service more authority to handle labor disputes in the rapidly growing health-care field. The agency's leadership pushed the FMCS's legal boundaries by providing mediation services in increasingly unionized state and local governments. The service began to mediate cases under the Age Discrimination Act. This was the beginning of FMCS's application of labor relations processes to the nontraditional mediating approach that eventually became known as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

The Reagan administration ordered large budget cuts, slashing the staff by 27 percent. Nevertheless, the FMCS managed to expand its ADR role through involvement in the regulatory negotiations process whereby federal agencies and interested parties jointly developed new regulations in a nonadversarial way.

During the administrations of George H. W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, and George W. Bush, the service recovered and maintained its stature. The Administrative Dispute Resolution Act of 1990 gave the FMCS broad responsibilities to apply ADR principles to a widened range of public disputes. In implementing Clinton's National Performance Review of federal programs, the FMCS applied private-sector management principles to its user services. With the end of the Cold War and the increasing integration of the world economy, foreign countries frequently consulted the FMCS on dispute settlement.

Bibliography

Barrett, Jerome T. The FMCS at Age 40. Falls Church, Va.: Friends of FMCS, 1987. Friends of FMCS maintains a private archive and produces historical research on the agency.

Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, 1947–1997. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1997. A brief in house history that is lavishly illustrated.

United States. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Annual Report. Washington, D.C: Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, 1949–.

—Judson MacLaury

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) is an independent agency of the U.S. government that seeks to prevent or settle disputes between labor unions and management that affect interstatecommerce. The FMCS was established by the 1947 Labor-Management Relations Act (61 Stat. 153 [29 U.S.C.A. § 172]), better known as the Taft-Hartley Act. Mediators for the FMCS have no law enforcement authority and must rely on their own persuasive techniques.

The Labor-Management Relations Act requires that parties to a labor contract must file a notice with the FMCS if agreement is not reached thirty days before a contract termination or reopening date. The FMCS is required by the act to avoid mediation of disputes that would have only a minor effect on interstate commerce. However, in seeking to promote labor peace through the encouragement and development of long-term, stable relationships between labor and management, the FMCS has taken a broad view of its statutory mandate and has involved itself in disputes that have little effect on interstate commerce.

The FMCS provides both mediation and conciliation services. Most of its interventions involve mediation, which is a voluntary, nonbinding form of dispute resolution. A mediator attempts to facilitate an agreement by conducting meetings and coordinating discussions. A mediator may make substantive suggestions as an active participant to help the parties reach a voluntary agreement.

FMCS mediators must be neutral and must have a minimum of seven years' experience in bargaining methods and tactics. Mediators must maintain strict confidentiality of both sides' positions, and may be removed for bias or a failure to maintain confidences. The FMCS employs over two hundred mediators, who typically handle about thirty thousand cases every year.

Conciliation is a different form of dispute resolution. A conciliator acts as a neutral third party, serving as a resource person for both sides. Generally, a conciliator will not participate in any joint meetings between the parties. Instead, a conciliator will present each party's position to the other in separate sessions. The conciliator may also suggest solutions, especially when negotiations have reached a stalemate.

The FMCS will also provide arbitration support. Arbitration is an informal method of adjudication, in which both sides present their side of the case and an arbitrator decides who prevails. Upon the joint request of a union and an employer, the FMCS will help select arbitrators from a roster of private citizens.

The agency also employs preventive mediation techniques once an agreement is reached. These techniques include the organization of or participation in labor-management committees, which serve as outlets for discussing problems, and the training of labor and management in alternative dispute resolution techniques. This training is often presented through conferences and seminars.

Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is an independent agency of the United States government, founded in 1947, which provides mediation services to industry, community and government agencies worldwide. One of its most common tasks is to help to mediate labor disputes around the country. The headquarters is located in Washington, D.C.. Certified mediators work for it.

Contents 1 Role under the Taft-Hartley Act 2 Formation and first director 3 Mediation roles 4 Directors 5 References 6 External links

Role under the Taft-Hartley Act

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service was created under the terms of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (better know as the Taft–Hartley Act) to replace the United States Conciliation Service operating within the Department of Labor, a body that had been described as partial to labor by an industry spokesman. The chair of the FMCS received $12,000, placing the position at par with the National Labor Relations Board. The FMCS offered its services upon request or in disputes affecting interstate commerce, and was required to be notified within 30 days of the expiration of a contract where either side proposes modification or termination of the existing contract.^[1]

Formation and first director

On August 7, 1947, President of the United States Harry S. Truman appointed Cyrus S. Ching as the first director of the FMCS. Ching had been a member of the National War Labor Board until 1943, and had been an employee of the United States Rubber Company since 1919, serving as the firm's director of industrial and public relations in 1929. Ching would take office as of August 22, 1947, the date established in the Taft-Hartley Act for the creation of the FMCS as an independent agency, and would assume the role of the nation's top labor mediator from Edgar L. Warren, who had filled the senior mediation role within the Labor Department.^[2] After conferring with the President in August, Ching stated that he would assume his role as director in early September upon the completion of his duties at U. S. Rubber. Ching stated that his role was to settle labor disputes at the level when and where they develop.^[3]

Ching was sworn into office on September 5, 1947 with an oath administered by Judge Henry White Edgerton at ceremonies also attended by Howard T. Colvin, who served as acting head from the August 22 creation of the FMCS, as well as other representatives of labor, industry and government.^[4]

Mediation roles

Representatives of the FMCS played a role in negotiations between Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation and the Marine and Shipbuilding Workers in a strike that started in June 1947.^[5]

Directors

Directors of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (with the date they took office listed and the President who made the appointment shown in parentheses), are as follows:^[6]

1. Cyrus S. Ching (1947; Truman)
2. David L. Cole (1952; Truman)^[7]
3. Whitney P. McCoy (Eisenhower)
4. Joseph F. Finnegan (1955; Eisenhower)
5. William E. Simkin (1961; Kennedy), the longest-serving Director, departing office in 1969.
6. J. Curtis Counts (1970; Nixon)
7. William Usery, Jr. (1973; Nixon)
8. James F. Scearce (1976; Ford)
9. Wayne L. Horvitz (1977; Carter)
10. Kenneth Moffett (1982; Reagan), served for seven months.
11. Kay McMurray (1982; Reagan)
12. Bernard E. DeLury (1990; Bush 41)
13. John Calhoun Wells (1993; Clinton)
14. C. Richard Barnes (1999; Clinton)
15. Peter J. Hurtgen (2002; Bush 43)
16. Arthur F. Rosenfeld (2006; Bush 43)
17. George H. Cohen (2009; Obama)

References

1. ^ Starks, Louis. "Analysis of the Labor Act Shows Changed Era at Hand for Industry; Labor Act Analysis Shows New Era for Industry", The New York Times, June 24, 1947. Accessed June 23, 2009.
2. ^ Staff. "Appointed by President As U.S. Mediation Chief", The New York Times, August 8, 1948. Accessed June 23, 2009.
3. ^ Staff. "CHING, PRESIDENT CONFER; Mediation Head Expects to Take Office About Sept. 3", The New York Times, August 13, 1947. Accessed June 23, 2009.
4. ^ Staff. "C.S. Ching Is Sworn In as Mediation Chief; Declares He Will Produce 'No Miracles'", The New York Times, September 6, 1947. Accessed June 23, 2009.
5. ^ Staff. "SHIP STRIKE NEARS END; Federal Mediators Report Progress in Bethlehem Tie-up", The New York Times, September 23, 1947. Accessed June 23, 2009.
6. ^ A Timeline of Events in Modern American Labor Relations, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Accessed June 23, 2009.
7. ^ Staff. "PRESIDENT ACCEPTS CHING RESIGNATION; He Praises Nation's Top Labor Conciliator -- David L. Cole Named Mediation Head ", The New York Times, September 16, 1952. Accessed June 23, 2009.

External links

• Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service website

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)