[DOCID:186873tx_xxx-78]
From the Government Manual Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[Page 478-479]
[[Page 478]]
NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD
Suite 250 East, 1301 K Street NW., Washington, DC 20572
Phone, 202-692-5000. Internet, www.nmb.gov.
Chairman Ernest W. Dubester
Members Francis J. Duggan,
Magdalena G.
Jacobsen
Chief of Staff Stephen E. Crable
Senior Mediators John Bavis, Larry
Gibbons
General Counsel Ronald M. Etters
Senior Hearing Officers Mary Johnson, Benetta
Mansfield,
Sean Rogers
Director of Public Affairs James E. Armshaw
Senior Research Analyst Donald L. West
Director of Arbitration Services Roland Watkins
Chief Financial Officer/Administration Officer June D.W. King
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The National Mediation Board assists in maintaining a free flow of
commerce in therailroadand airlineindustries by resolving labor-
management disputes that could disrupt travel or imperil the economy.
The Board also handles railroad and airline employee representation
disputes and provides administrative and financial support in adjusting
grievances in the railroad industry.
The National Mediation Board was created on June 21, 1934, by an act
amending the Railway Labor Act. (45 U.S.C. 151-158, 160-162, 1181-1188).
The Board's major responsibilities include preventing interruptions
to interstate commerce in the airline and railroad industries; ensuring
the right of employees to freely determine whether they wish to be
represented for collective bargaining purposes; ensuring the
independence of labor and management for self-organization to carry out
the purposes of the Railway Labor Act; and providing for the prompt and
orderly settlement of disputes in collective bargaining and over the
interpretation of existing collective bargaining agreements.
Disputes arising out of grievances or interpretation or application
of agreements concerning rates of pay,rules, or working conditions in
the railroad industry are referable to the National Railroad Adjustment
Board.This Board is divided into four divisions and consists of an equal
number of representatives of the carriers and of national organizations
of employees. In deadlocked cases the National Mediation Board is
authorized to appoint a referee to sit with the members of the division
for the purpose of making an award.
In the airline industry no national airline adjustment board has
been established for settlement of grievances. Over the years the
employee organizations and air carriers with established bargaining
relationships have agreed to grievance procedures with final
jurisdiction resting with a system board of adjustment. The Board is
frequently called upon to name a neutral referee to serve on a system
board when the parties are deadlocked and cannot agree on such an
appointment themselves.
Activities
Alternative Dispute Resolution In addition to traditional mediation
services, the Board provides alternative dispute resolution services.
These services include premediation facilitation, training, and
grievance mediation. The purpose of the program
[[Page 479]]
is to assist the parties in learning and applying more constructive,
less confrontational methods for resolving their disputes and to resolve
more of their own disputes without outside intervention.
Arbitration The Board provides grievance and interest arbitration for
collective bargaining disputes. Grievance arbitration involves
interpreting or applying an existing collective bargaining agreement.
Interest arbitration is the process to establish terms of a new or
modified collective bargaining agreement through arbitration instead of
negotiation. Arbitration decisions are final and binding.
Mediation Disputes The National Mediation Board is charged with
mediating disputes between carriers and labor organizations relating to
initial contract negotiations or subsequent changes in rates of pay,
rules, and working conditions. When the parties fail to reach accord in
direct bargaining, either party may request the Board's services or the
Board may on its own motion invoke its services. Thereafter,
negotiations continue until the Board determines that its efforts to
mediate have been unsuccessful, at which time it seeks to induce the
parties to submit the dispute to arbitration. If either party refuses to
arbitrate, the Board issues a notice stating that the parties have
failed to resolve their dispute through mediation. This notice commences
a 30-day cooling-off period after which self-help is normally available
to either or both parties.
Employee Representation If a dispute arises among a carrier's employees
as to who is to be the representative of such employees, it is the
Board's duty to investigate such dispute and to determine by secret-
ballot election or other appropriate means whether or not and to whom a
representation certification should be issued. In the course of making
this determination, the Board must determine the craft or class in which
the employees seeking representation properly belong.
Presidential Emergency Boards The Board has the duty of notifying the
President when the parties have failed to reach agreement through the
Board's mediation efforts and that the labor dispute, in the judgment of
the Board, threatens substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a
degree such as to deprive any section of the country of essential
transportation service. In these cases, the President may, at his
discretion, appoint an Emergency Board to investigate and report to him
on the dispute. Self-help is barred for 60 days after appointment of the
emergency board.
Sources of Information
Electronic Access Information pertaining to Board operations including
weekly case activity reports, representation determinations, press
releases, and a range of documents and forms is available on the
Internet, at www.nmb.gov.
Publications The following documents are available for public
distribution: Determinations of the National Mediation Board (26
volumes); Interpretations Pursuant to Section 5, Second of the Act (2
volumes); annual reports of the National Mediation Board including the
report of the National Railroad Adjustment Board; The Railway Labor Act
at Fifty; and The National Mediation Board at Fifty--Its Impact on
Railroad and Airline Labor Disputes.
Reading Room Copies of collective-bargaining agreements between labor
and management of various rail and air carriers are available for public
inspection At the Board's headquarters in Washington, DC, by
appointment, during office hours (1 to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday).
For further information, contact the Chief of Staff, National Mediation
Board, Suite 250 East, 1301 K Street NW., Washington, DC 20572. Phone,
202-523-5920. Fax, 202-523-1494. Internet, www.nmb.gov.
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