FEDERAL MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION SERVICE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20427
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR

To The Congress:

It is my privilege to submit to you the Forty-Eighth Annual Report of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in accordance with the provisions of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947. This report details the activities of this agency during Fiscal Year 1995.

This year was a time of significant change within FMCS as we continue to strengthen and improve our leadership role in collective bargaining and labor-management relations. Our focus has been customer satisfaction and continuous improvement in the quality and delivery of our services. We have made important steps toward these goals through a restructuring of our field organization, redefinition of field leadership responsibilities, an improved performance appraisal system, strengthened hiring criteria, heightened emphasis on mediator training and professional development, and increased reliance on the effective use of communications technology.

The Labor-Management Relations Act directed FMCS to prevent and minimize interruptions in the free flow of commerce growing out of labor disputes by facilitating the resolution of collective bargaining disputes in the organized sector of the economy. Such dispute mediation comprises a significant and dominant part of our work, as this report documents.

However, as the workplace relationship continues to have a direct impact on a business organization's competitiveness in the marketplace and on employment security for their workers, our caseload in preventive mediation services, assisting and training union and management leaders in the establishment of more effective, participative systems of communication, problem-solving and decision-making, continues to grow.

And in accordance with more subsequent legislation, FMCS's responsibilities have been broadened to include working in the public sector to provide conflict resolution services, including the facilitation of regulatory negotiations.

The American workplace is changing. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service will continue to change with it. Our goal is an FMCS which is staffed, equipped and fully prepared to maintain its leadership role and responsibilities in labor-management relations into the next century.

Respectfully,

John Calhoun Wells

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Last modified: February 09, 1998