June 13, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD

Re: Board Member DuBester Joins George Mason University Law School Faculty

The National Mediation Board announced today that senior Board Member Ernest W. DuBester will leave the NMB following the expiration of his current term in July, 2001. In August, 2001, he will join the faculty of George Mason University as a Professor of Law and Chairman of the law school's Dispute Resolution Program.

Mr. DuBester will also work with the Center for the Advanced Study of Law and Dispute Resolution Processes, an innovative interdisciplinary center established by the GMU Law School, the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR), and the National Mediation Board.

Mr. DuBester was nominated to the National Mediation Board by President Clinton on September 24, 1993, and he was unanimously confirmed to his third term by the Senate on November 19, 1999. During his tenure, Mr. DuBester served three terms as Chairman of the NMB.

During his service with the Board, Mr. DuBester was directly involved in mediating and helping the parties reach agreements in many major airline and railroad disputes.

Mr. DuBester and his fellow Board Members worked to introduce and promote innovative approaches to collective bargaining, including the reorganization of mediation services, and the implementation of interest based bargaining and grievance mediation.

Biography of Ernest W. DuBester

Ernest W. DuBester is the senior member of the National Mediation Board, having joined the Board on November 15, 1993. He has served three terms as Chairman, first from December 1993 - July 1995, again from July 1997 - July 1998, and again from January - December, 2000.

Mr. DuBester was first nominated to the NMB by President Clinton on September 24, 1993, and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a third term on November 19, 1999.

The Board is an independent Federal agency established by the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries. Other Members of the three-member Board are Francis J. Duggan and Magdalena G. Jacobsen.

Since joining the Board, Mr. DuBester and his fellow members worked jointly and individually to introduce and promote innovative approaches to collective bargaining. Initiatives to improve agency operations and administration undertaken during Mr. DuBester's first term as chairman continued apace with subsequent Board initiatives to enhance customer service. These included the reorganization of mediation services and the promotion of innovative approaches to dispute resolution such as interest-based bargaining and grievance mediation.

During his first term as chairman, Mr. DuBester chaired the 1994 International Labor Organization's Tripartite Conference on the "Consequences for Management and Personnel of the Restructuring of Railways," held in Geneva, Switzerland. Representatives of labor, management and the governments of fifteen countries were represented.

Mr. DuBester has taught collective bargaining and arbitration as an adjunct faculty member of the Catholic University of America Law School. Since August of 2000 he has taught alternative dispute resolution as an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University Law School. He is a co-founder of the Center for the Advanced Study of Law and Dispute Resolution Processes, an interdisciplinary Center involving the NMB, George Mason's Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR), and the George Mason Law School.

Before joining the Board, Mr. DuBester garnered experience in all facets of the Railway Labor Act, including the NMB, Federal courts, arbitration and national emergency disputes involving Presidential Emergency Boards and Congressional intervention. After the 1992 Presidential election, he served on the transition team for the Transportation Cluster Group of the Transitional office of President Clinton and Vice President Gore.

Before joining the Board, Mr. DuBester served as Legislative Counsel for the AFL-CIO. In that capacity, his responsibilities included airline and railroad issues, particularly those involving labor relations matters. He was involved in most of the airline and railroad disputes that came before Congress in recent years.

Prior to his tenure at the AFL-CIO, Mr. DuBester spent several years as a lawyer in private practice with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Highsaw and Mahoney, where he specialized in matters arising under the Railway Labor Act. While in private practice, he was involved in several airline and railroad bankruptcy proceedings.

From 1975 to 1981, Mr. DuBester served as counsel to the National Labor Relations Board, for most of that period as counsel to Chairman John Fanning. The NLRB administers the National Labor Relations Act, which essentially governs labor-management relations in all industries other than the airlines and railroads.

A native of Passaic, N.J., Mr. DuBester is a 1972 honors graduate of Boston College. He received his law degree in 1975 from Catholic University, where he was Recent Development's editor of The Law Review. In 1980, he received his Masters of Law in Labor Law from Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Bar in the District of Columbia, New Jersey and Florida.

He is married to Karen Kremer, of Birmingham, Alabama, and currently resides in Arlington, VA.