The following posts are submitted by Jerome T. Barrett. Dr. Barrett pertaining to his career as a labor mediator, commissioner, and director of the Office of Technical Services of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).
On May 31, 2001, during the waning months of the Richard Barnes Directorship (Director Peter Hurtgen was confirmed in 2002 after the lengthy transition due to the legal challenge of the 2000 election) an article was published by the Wall Street Journal which focused on the ever-growing non-labor mediation work of FMCS. Many were pleased […]
FMCS has played a key role in Panama. Specifically for the Panama Canal Labor Relations System. FMCS provided services to the U.S. Panama Canal Commission out of the Southern District. The FMCS role was multifaceted including mediation of collective bargaining agreements and midterm issues under the Federal Labor Relations Statute, and even some commercial mediation […]
Richard Giacolone was nominated in 2019 by President Trump as Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). Since his nomination, his confirmation had languished in the Senate until recently when MTD President Hart and IAM President Martinez stepped in to support Mr. Giacolone. MTD President Hart “Mr. Giacolone served as the mediator of […]
The story of Piedmont Flight 349 and Commissioner Bradley #553 It was the fall of 1959, and Scarsdale, New York teenager Janet Silberman had been planning to accompany her parents, a top cigar company executive and an avid photographer, on their trip to Virginia. Her younger brother had just begun his freshman year at […]
Directors of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (with the date they took office listed and the President who made the appointment shown in parentheses), are as follows: On June 15, 2021, President Biden announced his intent to nominate Javier Ramirez to be the next Director, as of 4/19/2022 has not been confirmed by the Senate. Cyrus S. […]
Traditional FMCS used its own hiring process separate from the Civil Service process that other Federal Agencies used, thus allowing FMCS to manage mediator hiring so as to fit the unique skill set required. For many years, new mediators were hired in groups based on minimum of seven years of labor-management experience at the GS-12 […]
[1]The expansion of the Soviet Union into Eastern Europe, the Berlin Blockade, and other aggressive actions including espionage following World War 11 caused fear and anxiety in the U.S. Taking advantage of these conditions in the early 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy, as head of the Senate Permanent Investigating Committee, used hearings and investigations to […]
FMCS Director J. Curtis Counts (1969-1973) During college Curt Counts met and began dating the college roommate of Patricia Ryan, the future wife of Richard Nixon. During and after college and law school, the two couples frequently double dated, and kept in touch over the years. During college at UCLA, Curt was known as a […]
In December 1968, Nancy C. Fibish was the first woman hired by FMCS since its creation in 1947. Her hiring ended a 21 year FMCS practice of hiring only men. The United States Conciliation Service (USCS), which FMCS replaced in 1947, had several women mediators who transferred to FMCS. Only one remained when Fibish was […]
Today, Regulatory Negotiations (RegNeg) are in common use at the State and Federal level helping agencies apply laws they are charged with enforcing. This was not the case forty years ago, before ADR use expanded into new dispute arenas. Since statutory law lacks the detail necessary to provide for reasonable application and enforcement, government agencies […]