Labor-Management Cooperation Program

The Labor- Management Cooperation Act of 1978 authorized the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to encourage and support joint labor-management cooperative activities designed "to improve labor-management relationships, job security and organizational effectiveness." In this act, Congress authorized FMCS to award grants to establish or expand labor-management committees. As a result, FMCS began the Labor-Management Cooperation Program in Fiscal Year 1981 and since that time, has awarded almost $15,000,000 and provided technical assistance to 239 labor-management committees in the United States and its territories.

Through the Labor-Management Cooperation Grants, FMCS seeks to encourage joint, innovative approaches to collaborative labor-management relationships and problem-solving. Committees funded under the grants program are not limited to any particular area. Recent committees have addressed health care cost containment solutions, area economic development, ADA compliance, total quality management in the public sector, company co-management, skills training and employee ownership.

All committee rules, regulations, criteria and instructions are revised and republished annually in the FMCS Application Solicitation/Program Guidelines under which applicants compete. The following information is included in this publication:

Preliminary scoring of each application is done by an independent FMCS Grant Review Board chaired by the Director of the Office of Labor-Management Grants and Projects. Final selection is made by the program director.

In Fiscal Year 1996, FMCS awarded 19 new grants and four extension grants totaling $1,499,866 to support labor-management committees. FMCS received a total of 93 grant applications requesting approximately $6,000,000 in funding.

International Association of Machinists (Upper Marlboro, MD)

$100,000 to establish a national High Performance Work Organization (HPWO) Labor-Management Committee (LMC) to promote the HPWO concept among at least 16 corporations nationwide.

$75,000 to merge with an adjacent area committee and expand to five additional counties to cover most of northwestern Pennsylvania.

Kent State University (Kent, OH)

$40,410 to expand existing cooperative efforts into new schools and focus on school maintenance issues.

Oklahoma City Public Schools/AFT/NEA (Oklahoma City, OK)

$90,148 to establish a comprehensive city-wide cooperative effort in the public school system.

Teamsters-Employers National Training Committee (Washington, DC)

$100,000 to develop a joint national strategy/curriculum for construction driver training.

Consortium for Quality Community Care/SEIU (Boston, MA)

$89,699 for a comprehensive cooperative effort in the mental health field involving four different companies in Massachusetts.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Joint Board/UNITE (Gaithersburg, MD)

$73,400 to expand employee involvement efforts regionally in the textile/clothing industry.

Graphics Communication International Union (Washington, DC)

$70,530 to establish four regional LMC’s across the United States to promote mutual interest bargaining and joint problem solving of local issues.

$100,000 to create statewide Connecticut Construction Labor-Management Council.

United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers (Washington, DC)

$100,000 to create a national committee to oversee the development of a uniform national apprenticeship training program through industry wide standards.

Ladish Co./IAM/IBEW/IFPTE/OPEIU/SEIU (Cudahy, WI)

$32,200 to jointly improve productivity and reduce waste by moving into self-directed teams in a multi-union environment.

$25,800 to promote workplace change by conducting employee surveys and studying best practices of similar institutions in meeting needs identified by the surveys.

$35,000 to improve patient care and labor relations through relationship-by-objectives and interest based problem solving approaches.

Working Partnerships/Santa Clara Co./SEIU (San Jose, CA)

$75,000 to expand county-wide effort to develop system of performance-based budgeting utilizing jointly developed performance standards to improve work processes.

District of Columbia/AFSCME/AFGE (Washington, DC)

$71,519 to help convert the Fleet Management Office into a self-supporting business through a pilot partnership effort overseen by a committee of top city and labor officials.

City of Seattle/32 Local Unions (Seattle, WA)

$65,368 to expand employee involvement committees into 25 new offices and improve the coordination of city-wide efforts.

City of Phoenix/AFSCME (Phoenix, AZ)

$72,000 to develop a model joint re-engineering process in the Water Services Department.

Genesee Co./AFSCME (Flint, MI)