Posted on by Jerome Barrett

William (Bill) Simkin: Longest Servicing FMCS Director (1961 to 1969)

Bill Simkin majored in economics while attending the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1937. He would later report having the good fortune of developed a relationship with Professor George W. Taylor, a famous labor-management arbitrator and in the view of scholars “the father of grievance arbitration.” Simkin became Taylor’s assistant in his mediation and arbitration practice, and ultimately Simkin developed his own arbitration practice.

During WWII, he performed dispute settlement work for the National War Labor Board. Following the war, he resumed his arbitration practice.

Bill Simkin was sworn-in as the fifth FMCS Director on March 31,1961 by President John Kennedy in a White House ceremony. President Lyndon Johnson reappointed Simkin extending his service to 1969.

At his White House swearing in, Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg remarked that Simkin was the first Quaker to be appointed FMCS Director. A life long Quaker, Simkin brought a peaceful, calm presence to all his conflict resolution work, and to the administration of FMCS. At the time of his appointment, the New York Times described Simkin as “one of the best known arbitrators of labor-management problems in the country.”

I had the good fortune to see Simkin during my National Office mediator internship in 1964. I saw Simkin at daily dispute case briefings where he interacted with staff. As a result, I have a strong and positive impression of him.

After leaving FMCS, Simkin joined the faculty of the Business School at Harvard (1969 to 1973), and he wrote a book in 1971 titled Mediation and the Dynamics of Collective Bargaining. In 1973, he resumed his arbitration practice, and later served a term as President of the National Academy of Arbitrators.

The Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974 directed FMCS to mediate this century-old dispute in Arizona. Bill Simkin, then living in Arizona, accepted Director Bill Usery’s request to mediate the case. After months, if not years, of mediating this complex case, Simkin wrote an extensive report with recommendations, as required by the law, for a Federal District Court. Ultimately, the Court’s decision supported Simkin’s report and recommendations.

Bill Simkin died at age 85 in 1992.

Posted on by Jerome Barrett

Cyrus Ching

Cy Ching is shaking hands with new mediator Bill Rose

Cyrus Ching was the first Director of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), serving from 1947 to 1953.

Cy Ching is shaking hands with new mediator Bill Rose

Bill Simkin is handing an honorary plaque to Cy Ching

In the Spring of 1964 during Jerry Barrett’s orientation to FMCS, he attended a lunch with other new mediators at the historic Occidental Restaurant, where the Cuban missile crisis had been resolved a few years earlier, just one block from the White House. While the enjoyment of visiting that historic restaurant was great, it didn’t compare with the guest at the table. Cyrus Ching regaled the group with his humor and wit throughout the entire meal. His best story came at the end of the meal when he began filling his pipe with tobacco. As he did that, he said:

“Notice how long this process with my pipe can take.” Then he held it high so everyone could see it clearly, and said: “My pipe is a wonderful mediation tool because it can take as much time as I wish to fill it, light it, relight it, or clean it. When I do that in a mediation session, with all eyes on my pipe and me, there is a long pregnant period of awkward silence, and very often it will be eventually filled by the voice of a nervous bargainer expressing unintended but useful information.”
In the first photo, Cy Ching is shaking hands with new mediator Bill Rose as he give him his official credentials.

In the second photo, Director Bill Simkin is handing an honorary plaque to Cy Ching, while Mrs. Ching looks on during the of 20th anniversary of FMCS in 1967.

Posted on by Jerome Barrett

Smiling Mediators in the 1960s

Three men standing

Three men standing

Three men walking toward the camera

1. Three men standing.

The man in the center is the famous Jimmy Hoffa, the leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). The other two are FMCS mediators. On the left, is Walter Maggiolo, Director of Office of Mediation. The other is C.K. Call, the Regional Director of FMCS in Chicago. Jimmy Hoffa’s son now heads the IBT.

2. Three men walking toward the camera.

These three top FMCS mediators are smiling for a good reason. They have just existed a conference room where they achieve a settlement of a labor-management dispute. They are from left to right: Gil Seldon, Assistance Director the Office of Mediation, Walter Maggiolo, Director Office of Mediation, and Bill Simkin.  FMCS Director Bill Simkin was appointed FMCS Director by President John Kennedy in 1961. He served until 1969, making him the longest serving FMCS Director before or since.

 

Director Simkin hired me in April 1964, and Regional Director C.K. Call was my boss during the four years I mediated in Milwaukee (1965 to 1969). In 1985, I helped Walter Maggiolo write the second edition of his book Techniques of Mediation in Labor Disputes (1985). Bill Simkin wrote Mediation and the Dynamics of Collective Bargaining (1971).