To The Congress:

It is my privilege to submit to you the Forty-Ninth Annual Report of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), detailing Fiscal Year 1996 activities in accordance with the provisions of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947.

Our focus this last year has been customer satisfaction and continuous improvement in the quality and delivery of our services. We made important steps toward these goals, documented in our 1994 and 1995 Annual Reports. We continued to build on that foundation in 1996: reaching out through a first-ever National Customer Survey to ask our customers what they think about the agency and its performance, modernizing our Preventive Mediation curriculum and instructional techniques, and by the end of Fiscal Year 1996, equipping every FMCS field office for the first time with computers and fax machines.

All of these changes have one purpose: to enable FMCS to provide high quality collective bargaining contract mediation and conflict resolution services to labor and management customers in the private, public and federal sectors. Dispute Mediation has been, and continues to be, our core responsibility. Yet, our role continues to evolve.

The workplace relationship has a direct impact on a business organization’s competitiveness in the marketplace and, correspondingly, on the job and employment security of its workers. This dynamic relationship is reflected in the continued expansion of our caseload in Preventive Mediation, assisting and training union and management leaders in the establishment of more effective, participative systems of communication, problem-solving and decision-making.

FMCS's mission has also expanded beyond the collective bargaining table. The Administrative Dispute Resolution Act and Negotiated Rulemaking Act direct the Service to provide conflict resolution services to local, state and federal agencies to assist in resolving issues from employment grievances to complex environmental, public policy and regulatory disputes.

To fully and capably meet these responsibilities, we must analyze our customers’ needs, and align our services to meet those needs. This is a constant process, requiring a strong commitment to remain a leader in labor-management relations and conflict resolution. This how the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service becomes a high performance organization.