Originally from:
AAA Handbook on Employment Arbitration and ADR - 2nd Edition - Hardcover
AAA Handbook on Employment Arbitration and ADR - 2nd Edition - Electronic
Preview Page - CHAPTER 23
THE QUEST FOR FINALITY IN AIRLINE
DISPUTES: A CASE FOR ARB-MED
Arnold M. Zack∗
I. Introduction
The conventional wisdom has mediation as the prelude to arbitration
of disputes arising out of labor-management contract negotiations. The
author suggests a faster method, one that avoids using mediation to reach
the next step. His proposal flips the sequence, using arbitration first, but
putting the decision in a sealed envelope while the parties mediate for a
set time period. If agreement is reached, the neutral tears up the envelope
and the decision is never revealed. If the mediation fails, the envelope is
opened and the arbitration award resolves the dispute.
Collective bargaining between unions and management over new or
renewal contract terms, as practiced in the airline industry, is not
working. The system designed in 1936 is rife with delays and lacks any
assurance of reaching a final resolution of these disputes; moreover, the
system fails to meet the current needs of society. Of the proposed
alternatives to the present system, the concept that holds the most
promise of providing a full hearing of the issues with an opportunity for
the parties to reach agreement on their own is called “arb-med.”
Arnold Zack is a mediator and arbitrator of labor-management disputes, a teacher at
the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, and author of 12 books on
dispute resolution and international labor issues. He is a member of the Visiting
Committee on Human Resources at Harvard University, and he chairs the Executive
Committee of the Alliance for Education in Dispute Resolution. Mr. Zack, a former
president of the National Academy of Arbitrators, has been appointed to four Presidential
Emergency Boards. He co-chaired the Due Process Task Force which produced the Due
Process Protocol for the Mediation and Arbitration of Statutory Employment Disputes. He
has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Service Award for Labor
Management Arbitration, the Whitney North Seymour Medal of the American Arbitration
Association, and the Cushing Gavin Award of the Archdiocese of Boston.
