Kenneth Moffett

The first involved Kenneth Moffett, who had been a staff representative with District 50, UMWA, beginning in April 1958 before joining FMCS as a mediator intern in June 1961. Seven months later, he was transferred to Cleveland as a mediator—In 1967, he was appointed to the National Headquarters as a National Representative.

When Wayne Horvitz became Director in May 1977, he appointed Moffett as Deputy Director. Moffett remained Deputy Director until January 1, 1981, when Horvitz resigned to allow the new Reagan Administration to appoint a new Director. Moffett then became the FMCS Acting Director for the next twelve months. During that year, budget cuts caused a significant staff reduction. A suit initiated by several SES employees facing a RIF caused the Justice Department to determine that Moffett, as Acting Director, did not have RIF authority. In January 1982, the White House gave Moffett a recess appointment (which doesn’t require Senate confirmation) as Director so he could implement the RIF. Moffett’s tenure was dominated by a budget crisis requiring reorganization, eliminating 75 employees, and a shift to computerization. His tenure ended in July 1982, when President Reagan appointed Kay McMurray Director. Moffett had a distinguished career but was never confirmed by the Senate.  Director Moffett passed away in November of 2021.

Charles Richard Barnes

The second involves Charles Richard Barnes, who joined FMCS in 1987 following seventeen years as a representative for the Laborers International Union. He served as a mediator, District Director (1994) and Regional Director (1995) in Atlanta. Director John Wells appointed Barnes Deputy Director in 1996.  In 1999, he was appointed by Director Wells as Acting Director.  Then, President Clinton eventually nominated Barnes for the director position, and he was subsequently confirmed by the Senate and sworn in in  January 2020. He served briefly after the 2000 contested election until President Bush appointed Peter Hurtgen as his Director.

Richard Giacolone

The third was Richard Giacolone, who joined FMCS as a Commissioner in 1995 following 15 years as a management advocate. He was quickly promoted to Special Assistant to the Director (1998) and then Director of International and ADR Services (2000).  In 2004, he requested to return to the field as a Commissioner. He served the Mid-Atlantic region as a Senior Mediator until he was appointed by the President as Acting Director in 2018, then nominated and confirmed as the 19th Director by the U.S. Senate.  He mediated and resolved numerous major labor disputes, including the 2020 Bath Ironworks/IAM&AW strike. He is the second former mediator to be confirmed by the Senate.  He is the only FMCS Director appointed directly from a field Commissioner position by the President.

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 very good baseball player.

Prior to FMCS, Curt worked in the private sector as a manager for Douglas Aircraft Company with a focus on labor-management relations. In that position, he developed a sound relationship with IAM, the major union at Douglas. He would eventually become a corporate official.

Secretary of Labor George P. Shultz selected Counts in 1969 to serve as Director of FMCS. In making that announcement, Secretary Shultz reported that Curt was getting the job on his merits and experience, and not on his relations with the President.

Counts successfully served for nearly four years until 1973. He was able to develop a positive working relationship with Jimmy Hoffa, George Meany and Walter Reuther.

He resolved a three-month-long strike by the International Union of Electrical Worker against General Electric^. He also was involved in settling a strike of the International Longshoremen’s Association and East Coast ports from Boston to Texas.^.

Counts interestingly aided the formation of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR).[1] Based on his concern that the mediators were considering forming a union, he assigned senior mediator David Tanzman to travel to state and Canadian mediation services to determine their interest in forming a national organization of labor-management dispute resolver. Counts hoped that such an organization would shift mediator interest away from unionizing.[2]

Counts died at age 83 on June 30, 1999

[1] The predecessor to the Association of Conflict Resolution (ACR)

[2] Counts’ hope was met during his tenure, mediator unionizing efforts did occur periodically among the mediators.

Before and after serving as Director, Cole had a remarkable national career as a labor-management neutral. He was a nationally known arbitrator, a founding Member of the National Academy of Arbitrators in 1949, and served a term as NAA president in 1951-52. He was often selected by Presidents to assist in resolving major national industry disputes. His first appointment in 1944 by President Roosevelt involved Bethlehem Steel and the United Steelworkers Union.

During his career, Cole served at the pleasure of six presidents on such national labor disputes. They included Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford.

Cole graduated from Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He learned labor-management relations from his father who was a silk manufacturer in New Jersey during the period when that industry was become unionized.

In addition to a very busy arbitration practice, Cole once served as Chair of the New Jersey Mediation Board involving both public and private sector labor disputes.

See “David L. Cole Remembrance – May 2009” on my website at Documents – FMCS Papers. This was written by George Larney who worked as Cole’s assistant when Cole headed the National Commission For Industrial Peace, established by President Nixon”s Executive Order on April 4, 1973. The Commission was tasked with making a report and recommendation on how to establish industrial peace.

George Larney’s Remembrance is a fond and respectful remembering of an outstanding labor-management dispute resolver.

Whitney McCoy

FMCS Director Whitney McCoy (1953-54) viewed FMCS as an independent agency, and himself as a Presidential appointee assigned to lead FMCS. But appearances seemed to run counter to that independence. In the Department of Labor Building, McCoy’s office on Mahogany Row was next to Mitchell’s office and among offices of several Assistant Secretaries of Labor. The location of McCoy’s office resulted from the 1947 take-over of the United States Conciliation Service (USCS) offices when the USCS was replaced by the creation of FMCS.

Secretary Mitchell insisted on getting regular updates on collective bargaining disputes, particularly major negotiations. McCoy was comfortable with providing weekly written negotiations reports, much like what he might provide to news papers. But Mitchell wanted an oral report at any moment he had an interest. To that end, the Secretary ordered workmen to make a doorway between his office and the Director’s office. (Another version of this story about ‘the door between’ can be found on my post “Return Mediation Role FMCS TO DoL.”)

The Secretary also insisted that McCoy attend the Secretary’s staff meeting with his Assistant Secretaries. At which, McCoy was expected to brief everyone on FMCS and current labor negotiations.

McCoy, a law school professor, an arbitrator and author of a 1946 text on arbitration, (see above) did not hide his displeasure. When the disagreement reached the White House, Mitchell’s stronger connection there resulted in a request for McCoy’s resignation after one year and four months on the job.

McCoy returned to his law professorship and his arbitration practice just one day before his successor moved in.

Joseph Finnegan

Joseph Finnegan became the next FMCS Director. Since Finnegan had been Mitchell’s labor lawyer when they both were in the private sector, their relationship matched what Mitchell expected. Finnegan served five years and nine months, ending with the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

As Deputy Director, Scearce mediated the first collective bargaining agreement between the National Football League and Players’ Union. He also responded to a request from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to conduct an election at a huge South Dakota Native American reservation, even though such work was beyond the usual work of FMCS. Also as Deputy, he helped Usery arrange for former FMCS Director Bill Simkin to mediate the Navajo/Hopi land dispute in Arizona and New Mexico. The case had been in and out of courts, and accompanied by years of protest. Then the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974 directed FMCS to mediate the case.

As Director, Jim mediated the high- stakes California Canners Association dispute in California. At a key point, Jim moved the negotiations to the D.C National Office where, on the first day of negotiations an open top semi truck of overly ripe tomatoes arrived in front of the FMCS building. The hot July sun encouraged the strong smell, and amused the gathering reporters. Several times that day, the Police ordered the truck driver to move. He did but returned when the Police left. The truck’s presence required only one day for the rotting tomatoes to remind everyone that harvesting crops is very time sensitive.

A more notable, but related event occurred two days later when Scearce made the risky move of recommending a settlement following several days of the parties sitting on final positions and resisting all mediating efforts by Scearce. At that point, Scearce drafted a written recommendation and presented it to each party’s caucus. After several hours of Scearce nervously waiting, both parties accepted his recommendation.

With the change of Administration on January 20th 1977, Scearce began his arbitration practice, aided by the fact that the National Football League and the Players Association hired him as their lead arbitrator.

Jim died in May 2017.

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.

Seven

Their combined tenure covers 25 years, or half the life of FMCS in 1998.*

FMCS Directors are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate for four-year terms. They can be reappointed.   FMCS is responsible for mediating disputes between labor and management.

List of FMCS Directors

1. Cyrus S. Ching (1947; Truman)
2. David L. Cole (1952; Truman)^[9]
3. Whitney P. McCoy (1953; Eisenhower)
4. Joseph F. Finnegan (1955; Eisenhower)
5. William E. Simkin (1961; Kennedy), the longest-serving Director, departing office in 1969
6. J. Curtis Counts (1970; Nixon)
7. William Usery, Jr. (1973; Nixon)*
8. James F. Scearce (1976; Ford)*
9. Wayne L. Horvitz (1977; Carter)*
10. Kenneth Moffett (1982; Reagan),* served for seven months.
11. Kay McMurray (1982; Reagan)*
12. Bernard E. DeLury (1990; G. H. W. Bush)*
13. John Calhoun Wells (1993; Clinton)*
14. C. Richard Barnes (2000; Clinton)
15. Peter J. Hurtgen (2002; G. W. Bush)
16. Arthur F. Rosenfeld (2006; G. W. Bush)
17. George H. Cohen (2009; Obama)
18. Allison Beck (2014; Obama), the first woman to serve as director
19. Richard Giacolone (2018; Donald J. Trump)