Preventive Mediation

Table of contents

A new plant manager came on board with a mandate to make the Delphi more economically competitive. Realizing that a better relationship with the employee union was essential to allowing joint discussions on the company’s future, he contacted FMCS about a Relationship-By-Objectives (RBO) program.

The RBO is, in the spectrum of FMCS Preventive Mediation services, strong medicine. It requires a strong commitment from both management and union to improve the relationship, and is usually called for only when failure to address relationship problems could threaten the continued economic health of the entire operation. The process requires a team of mediators to assist the participants in identifying specific problem areas, develop mutually-agreeable objectives to address them, and create mutual objectives, action steps and time lines.

An FMCS mediation teams delivered the RBO program over three days in June 1997. The same UAW local will participate in a follow-up RBO in late September with GM’s Delco Division, which is being brought under the Delphi umbrella. A third program will be delivered later in the year with UAW and the company’s contract managers.

Amoco / OCAW
(RBO)

The Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW) represent about 1200 employees at the Amoco Oil Company’s Texas City, Texas refinery, Amoco’s largest refinery in the world. Over the past three and a half decades, the labor and management parties have had a traditional adversarial relationship. The parties agreed to participate in a Relationship by Objective (RBO) process at the suggestion of an FMCS mediator familiar with their history.

The Amoco-Texas City plant manager and the OCAW local chairman each led nine person teams in the RBO which was facilitated by a team of four FMCS mediators. At the beginning of the program, there was very little mixing of the parties outside their assigned work groups. In addition to the work sessions, the parties also shared a continental breakfast and lunch each day. As the three day program progressed, so did the relationship between the parties, and by the end, they were facilitating their own work sessions. The parties’ efforts resulted in a joint labor-management initiative which has been publicly praised by both managers and union leaders.

Amoco and the OCAW jointly agreed to long-term goals and a near-term timeline to implement their "RBO Partnership." FMCS joint training and regular guidance was included as part of the timeline as the parties establish their new relationship. The FMCS case mediator has also led a team in training company and union leaders in interest-based problem solving in an effort to seek solutions to the problems that have plagued the parties’ relationship for many years, and Interest-Based Bargaining. The parties have continued to meet monthly with the mediator to measure progress on completing the joint objectives, and to establish new ones.

The early successes the parties achieved were symbolized by a "bury the hatchet" ceremony and by flying the OCAW flag with to the Amoco flag in front of the refinery. The parties recognize that they will face many barriers, especially in the early stages of this process, but both parties have expressed a mutual desire to work through those barriers together and overcome them.

Lukens Steel / USA
(RBO)

Sometimes an organization's labor-management relationship has deteriorated to the point that jobs, or even the continued economic health of entire operation, are threatened. This situation can occur following a particularly bitter or protracted strike. This was the case with Lukens Steel, Inc. and the United Steelworkers of America (USA) Local 1165, representing 1,500 workers at Lukens’ Coatesville, Pennsylvania facility, as they entered their 1993 contract negotiations.

 The bargaining was contentious, unsuccessful and led to a six- month strike. FMCS was asked to assist in reopening negotiations and, ultimately, a new collective bargaining agreement was reached and signed in January 1994. However, the parties still faced the daunting task of dealing with some 3,500 remaining grievances and arbitration procedures, with more piling up at the rate of 100 per month.

Realizing that their fundamental labor-management relationship was in need of rebuilding, and that serious measures needed to be taken, the company and union requested that FMCS conduct a Relationship By Objectives (RBO) Program. Over a two and a half year period, a team of three mediators led the parties through the RBO process, assisting them in analyzing the relationship and exploring the difficulties. Through structured interaction, both parties were able to identify specific problem areas and develop mutually-agreeable objectives to address them. Mediators also assisted with Labor-Management Committee meetings and extensive grievance mediation, training the parties in the proper investigation, processing and presentation of grievances.

With the help of FMCS, Lukens Steel management and the USA Local 1165 leaders negotiated and settled their recent labor contract without a strike. The relationship between labor and management has improved dramatically. There is more respect for one another and issues are discussed without individual personalities becoming entwined in the discussion. The grievance backlog has dwindled to a manageable size of 250, with only about 10 to 15 new grievances filed in an average month. The parties are continuing to utilize the services of FMCS.

Sandvik Steel / Laborers International Union of North America
(IBB)

FMCS involvement with Sandvik Steel began in 1994 when a federal mediator was called in to assist in contract negotiations between Sandvik, a Waverly, Pennsylvania company, and the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), representing approximately 250 employees. The parties had been at the table for some time but had been unable to reach agreement. The issues involved and the problems in coming to a conclusion were not unusual. In private caucuses with the parties, the mediator determined that, although the company and union had a reasonable relationship, problems occasionally arose, particularly with the negotiation of a new labor agreement. Importantly, the parties seemed to have a legitimate desire to improve the quality of their relationship.

The mediator remained in touch with the parties over the term of that contract, and as the time for contract renegotiation approached, began to discuss the benefits of using the Interest-Based Bargaining (IBB) approach in their 1997 contract talks. The parties agreed, and FMCS conducted two and a half days of IBB training in the fall of 1996. The training led directly into actual contract negotiations with the mediator, which required two months and 15 meetings.

Southern Nevada Labor Alliance (Bechtel Corporation)
(Facilitation Training)

The Southern Nevada Labor Alliance is a collective bargaining agreement between the Bechtel Nevada Corporation and the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions.

In early 1996, Bechtel submitted a bid to the U.S. Department of Energy to manage the Nevada Test Site (NTS). A key factor in the Energy Department’s consideration of Bechtel’s proposal was a commitment to expand and improve the longstanding relationships between NTS contractors and employee unions through creation of the Alliance. DOE strongly supported the idea of including craft employees’ input into site operations as part of a new performance-based management contract.

The Alliance was actually formed in March, 1966, and FMCS was asked to provide facilitation and training for continuous improvement committees, established as part of the agreement to evaluate major issues and develop processes and procedures to improve productivity, quality and work methods. An FMCS mediator provided training designed specifically to give the 30 committee members and Department of Energy Representatives necessary skills in basic interaction and problem solving. The mediator also facilitated the deliberations of three initial joint committees: Work Rules, Work Assignment Dispute Resolution Process and Communications. Training and facilitation for several additional continuous improvement committees has been scheduled for September.

Labor-management cooperation and employee involvement processes are rare in Southern Nevada. This is the first time a Nevada Test Site prime contractor and its local unions have engaged in cooperative processes, and in fact, the first private sector effort of this type and scope in the state.

Wohlert Corporation / United Paperworkers International Union

The mediator’s work in improving an employer’s labor-management relationship and organizational effectiveness can go far beyond training in cooperative skills and processes. Such was the case with the Wohlert Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of ring gears for transmissions, and the United Paperworkers International Union (UPIU).

Over a ten-year period, the parties had taken advantage of many FMCS Preventive Mediation services, and had developed a much more cooperative workplace relationship. They decided that the new relationship could be an effective base from which to transform the organizational and operational structures to meet the considerable challenges faced by the automotive components industry: growing international competition, severe cost pressures, and rapidly changing technologies, which fed the constant development of new products.

Wohlert and UPIU used creative methods in organizational design including joint governance, joint rulemaking, the use of cascaded development training, organizational, unit and individual indicators, and joint decision making and conflict resolution processes. As significant as the steps the union and company took to build a new organization was the fact that the initiatives were undertaken using a worker-management team system to define, measure and achieve joint goals and objectives. Additionally, the changes were made "on line," without interruption in the product manufacturing processes.

Recently, while a portion of the plant was closed to retool for the manufacture of a new gear, all three shifts of employees and managers were trained in the manufacturing processes to be used for the new product. When the plant was ready, the employees and management were ready, too.

J. J. Nissen Baking Co. / Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers Union

J. J. Nissen Baking Company employs 335 members of the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers International Union (BCTWU) in Portland, Maine. The two sides have used traditional collective bargaining processes in contract negotiations, and came to FMCS seeking Preventive Mediation services with a very specific goal.

Nissen is building a new, much larger facility; six acres of bakery under one roof. The company’s management decided that they and the union could only succeed in the venture if they worked together. They created employee-management teams to review engineering designs for the new plant and make recommendations on the most appropriate new equipment.

FMCS mediators conducted two-days of focus groups for 80 union representatives, shop floor supervisors, employees and managers in joint problem-solving, creative thinking and brainstorming, to help prepare them for the task ahead. Representatives from the union and management indicated afterward that the training processes, and the experience they've gained working as "partners" will make a significant difference in their workplace relationship in the future.

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Last modified: February 12, 1998