International Affairs

The increasing concentration by various nations of the world on economic growth, trade and regional and global competitiveness has focused their interest in labor issues as one of the elements requiring concern and attention. The importance of the labor sector as a vital ingredient in economic development is reflected in the World Bank's 1995 World Development Report concentration on "Workers in an Integrating World." This same attention given to labor relations in U.S. foreign assistance efforts to foster sustainable development in nations throughout the world is exemplified in the Hemispheric Free Trade Expansion Project of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which includes trade and labor-management relations as one of five areas of concentration of that program.

Because of this ongoing interest in labor development among a growing number of countries, FMCS continues to receive requests for training and technical assistance in sound industrial relations and cooperative labor-management relations from abroad. FMCS activity in these areas is a result of a growing awareness among other nations of the Service's ability to assist them in developing positive and cooperative labor-management relations as a vital factor in improving their competitiveness, and achieving stable and sustainable economic growth.

In recognition of the growing importance of international activities among FMCS services, and because of the increasing frequency of requests for labor-management related information and assistance, FMCS established a separate function within its Office of International Affairs in 1992 to deal with these activities.

FMCS International Services

During fiscal year 1995, FMCS trained and briefed almost 400 labor, management, government and other leaders from 85 countries who visited FMCS facilities. FMCS assigned 17 mediators to overseas technical assistance projects during the same period.

Because FMCS is an independent governmental agency with primary responsibility for domestic labor dispute resolution and improvement of labor-management relations, these international activities are usually undertaken in cooperation with such organizations as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of State, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) of the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), Labor Ministries of other nations and various international organizations. Further, in carrying out its activities, FMCS coordinates with the AFL-CIO and its international institutes, and a number of management organizations.

FMCS Overseas Technical Assistance Activities

Russia

Several mediators conducted three separate programs as part of a series of labor-management conferences for practitioners in the cities of Samara, Vorkuta and Moscow, Russia during the year.

These conferences served as opportunities for FMCS mediators to conduct mediator skills training for Russian and Ukrainian labor dispute resolvers. The programs were designed by FMCS to provide a systematic development of a variety of mediation skills over the course of the year-long efforts.

All of the Russian mediators who participated in mediation skills training are members of the Russian Service for the Resolution of Collective Labor Agreements, created with FMCS assistance in 1973. In addition to the Russian mediators, a number of the participants in the mediation skills training programs were mediators of the Ukrainian government.

Ecuador

As a result of their participation in an Andean regional program of the U.S. Department of Labor's Latin American Symposia on Innovative Labor-Management Cooperation last year, Ecuadorian trade union leaders returned to their country and met with their management counterparts to urge development-oriented changes in labor-management relations in that country.

This initiative led to a joint request to seek technical assistance from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for the restructuring of their labor-management relations in the Guayaquil area. With the assistance of Embassy authorities and the regional office of the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AFL-CIO), FMCS provided two mediators to conduct a program in Guayaquil and Quito similar to the FMCS presentation at the Andean conference in Venezuela.

Because of joint interest among practitioners in that country, a second labor-management conference was conducted at year end. These sessions included skills training for practitioner representatives of 45 companies and unions provided by two FMCS mediators. In addition, a regional labor-management committee was formed among leaders of labor and management who have signed an agreement to foster improved labor relations in that part of Ecuador.

The continuing interest and enthusiasm for the new approaches among the industrial relations community was reflected in the positive reaction of the U.S. Ambassador and the Minister of Labor of Ecuador to the FMCS program. A lessening of labor-management tensions in the region has also been attributed to these activities.

Based on the growing Ecuadorian interest in this program, the U.S. Agency for International Development has provided a grant to FMCS for the continuation of its efforts in this area.

FMCS efforts are substantially funded by local labor and management organizations in Ecuador.

Poland

At the request of the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs, FMCS conducted training in Labor-Management Participative Processes at a steel plant in Ostrowiez, Poland for labor and management officials. Two FMCS mediators conducted this training and later conferred with U.S. Embassy officials in Warsaw concerning FMCS mediator training in that country.

Hungary

FMCS participated in a conference on labor mediation in Budapest sponsored by the Hungarian Ministry of Labor. Funded by USAID, the conference included representatives of other mediation services such as the Independent Mediation Service of South Africa (IMSSA), the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service of Great Britain (ACAS), the labor mediation program of the Polish Labor Ministry, the Industrial Relations Section of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Federal Labor Relations Authority.

The Conference was intended to provide officials of the Hungarian Ministry an opportunity to assess various approaches to the creation of a mediation capability in that country.

Taiwan

Again this year, FMCS was invited to participate in a series of university based conferences on improving labor-management relations in Taiwan. This third program in Taiwan in which FMCS has served in a key role as part of an ongoing effort by the Council of Labor Affairs, the Taiwanese counterpart to a Ministry of Labor, in its continuing efforts to improve labor-management relations in that country.

Argentina and Uruguay

An FMCS mediator spent one week in several locations in Argentina and Uruguay addressing a variety of topics including innovative approaches to cooperative labor-management relations, womens' issues in industrial relations and the uses of Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Because of the success of these and earlier Argentinean programs, FMCS has received an invitation from the Ministry of Labor of Argentina to propose a program of technical assistance to that country in anticipation of their participation in the Hemispheric Free Trade Expansion signaled by the `95 Summit of the Americas.

While this activity was sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) , the Uruguayan portion of the program was conducted in participation with the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), which currently promotes labor-management cooperation in that country.

European Union

Interest in the U.S. experience with labor-management participative and consultative processes led to an invitation to an FMCS mediator to speak at a European Union conference of European employers in Cologne, Germany. The conference participants met to address efforts in Europe to create international works councils as means of addressing European wide work issues which arise between European based multi-nationals and workers represented by unions in various European countries.

The employer group was also interested in U.S. practitioner reaction to European works councils and labor-management participative processes currently in use in Europe and in the United States as well as the recently published Report of the U.S. Commission on the Future of Worker Management Relations.

FMCS participation in this program, sponsored by the European Union and the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe is the result of an ongoing relationship between the Service and these organizations.

FMCS International Training Programs and Briefings

FMCS continued its program of specialized training and briefings for international labor, management and other leaders visiting FMCS during the year.

Taiwan

The Council of Labor Affairs of Taiwan continued its programs of FMCS training for labor union officials and labor officers from a variety of jurisdictions in U.S. industrial relations processes and practices. In 1994, FMCS, with the coordination of the American Institute in Taiwan, had provided a Washington-based training program for labor union officials.

The 1995 Washington training program for industrial relations officers preceded a special one-day program on Asian labor development at the Industrial Relations Institute of the University of Illinois at Champagne, Illinois, involving Taiwan and FMCS officials, university faculty and local labor and management practitioners.

Both groups were then provided additional opportunities to meet and confer with American labor and management officials in several cities around the United States.

Latin America

FMCS conducted nine separate half-day briefings for Latin American trade union officials as part of special programs conducted by the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, AFL-CIO. These programs are designed to provide trade union leaders from South America, Central America and the Caribbean with a basic understanding of labor-related issues arising from planned economic integration of the region.

Palestine

A special Palestinian study group spent six weeks in the United States focusing on various aspects of alternative dispute resolution. The members of the study group will be responsible for incorporating these processes in Gaza and the Western Bank on their return. The group devoted three days under an FMCS program in Washington, D.C. to gaining an understanding of labor dispute resolution and improvement of labor-management relations. This program, reported in the Wall Street Journal, was the first such effort undertaken by officials of that jurisdiction.

Multi-National

Again, this year, a number of special programs were developed for groups of labor and management practitioners of several regions including Latin America, the Middle East and Africa as well as Eastern and Western Europe. These participants sought information and guidance in their development of dispute resolution processes in their home areas.

1996 OVERSEAS PROGRAMS

East Africa

FMCS has been asked by the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide mediator assistance in the design of an alternative dispute resolution system for administration of environmental programs in East Africa. The mediator is expected to meet with a variety of U.S. government officials and representatives of Non Governmental Organizations who administer these programs prior to mediator on-site visits to Madagascar. This program is a pilot effort in the design of alternative dispute resolution processes outside the United States.

El Salvador

Based on prior program efforts in El Salvador, FMCS will undertake a major USAID sponsored effort in that country to train a cadre of mediators and carry on a series of on-site programs to assist labor and management in specific company union relationships in developing sound industrial relations practices and establishing a basis for improved relationships.

In a second U.S. Agency for International Development sponsored program in El Salvador, FMCS will provide specialized training for Ministry of Labor personnel in sound industrial relations and individual dispute resolution techniques.

Philippines

FMCS has been invited to conduct a five year program in the Philippines and the United States involving mediator and labor-management training and a professional exchange program by the Mediation and Arbitration Service of the Philippine government. This program is expected to begin in 1996.

The International Cooperation Program

FMCS continued its participation and support of a special annual program of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Division of International Cooperation for labor statisticians from a variety of ministries studying the use of Statistical Data for Collective Bargaining. This year the several-day program included training in U.S. industrial relations, collective bargaining practices, labor dispute resolution and improvement of labor-management relationships. The program was supplemented with a site visit to the Nabisco plant in Philadelphia to meet labor and management representatives involved in an FMCS program of introducing innovative labor-management relations processes.

U.S. State Department Labor Attache Program

A group of six experienced foreign service officers of the U.S. Department of State, being assigned as labor attaches to overseas posts for the first time, spent several days at FMCS as part of their six weeks training program. In addition to extensive training in labor-management negotiations, arbitration, labor law, labor dispute resolution and FMCS assistance to practitioners seeking to improve their relationships, the group met a number of U.S. practitioners who provided first-hand experience in day-to-day labor-management practices and their use of innovative processes. As in the past, the new labor attaches found the FMCS training sessions to be among the more useful sessions in their training experience.

International Industrial Research Association Congress

The 10th World Congress of the International Industrial Research Association was held in Washington, D.C. in 1995, attracting 1,200 people from all over the world. Because of the international theme of the meeting, "Learning From Each Other," FMCS assisted in organizing the Conference and was responsible for several of its activities. The Director of FMCS joined in a Plenary Session with leaders of the Independent Mediation Service of South Africa and the Commission of Industrial Relations of the Republic of Ireland to discuss new dimensions of labor mediation in their respective countries.

In addition, FMCS mediators participated in several seminars on advanced applications of labor mediation. In a special seminar, representatives of mediation services from Northern Ireland, Denmark, El Salvador, Russia, South Africa, Canada, Republic of Ireland and the United States met to review their various structures and processes, as well as to discuss questions for the future of labor dispute resolution.

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