FMCS :: Who We Are :: Agency Departments :: International/Dispute Resolution Services (ADR)

Established as an independent agency of the U.S. government by the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) is responsible for preserving and promoting labor-management peace throughout the United States through sound and stable labor-management relations. Through a staff of mediators, FMCS offers conflict resolution services and programs to minimize or prevent conflicts in the collective bargaining process and to improve relationships between union and management.

While the primary mission of the FMCS is the promotion of improved labor-management relations in the United States, the Service also provides technical assistance to many other nations. Its efforts are designed to support U.S. companies and workers in the global market by advocating core labor standards for all nations. By strengthening the rule of law and workers’ rights, the Service’s programs encourage the creation of the stable and productive labor forces that are needed to support economic growth and stability. Moreover, the FMCS helps establish the labor relations institutions that are essential to the smooth functioning of market economies.

The FMCS has become a leading international exporter of conflict resolution and mediation systems, often through agreements with the U.S. Departments of State and Labor and the Agency for International Development, as well as with organizations such as the International Labor Organization and the United Nations. Traveling abroad or at FMCS headquarters in Washington, D.C., FMCS mediators have briefed or trained business, labor, and government delegations from many countries. The FMCS itself has become the pattern for a number of newly established mediation agencies around the world.

The international programs provided by the FMCS focus on the following areas:

The FMCS also provides briefings for foreign leaders on industrial relations processes and institutional responses to change in the industrial relations environment. The Service also offers programs for foreign labor attachés and arranges and facilitates meetings for foreign representatives with American industrial relations practitioners. International visitors also may register for courses offered by the Agency’s Institute for Conflict Management. Established in 1998, the FMCS Institute is a critical component of the Agency’s effort to share best practices with labor relations practitioner in communication, organizational change, and improved labor-management relations. Client-focused training in mediation, multi-party advanced mediation, arbitration skills, negotiation, and organizational development draws students from varying backgrounds to sites around the country for week-long courses. Special tutorials also have been set up for small groups of foreign visitors with interest in relationship development, training, and observation of field mediators in actual cases.

In 2005, FMCS mediators went to Ghana to train members of the newly formed Labor Relations Commission in arbitration and mediation techniques. In 2006, members of the Commission came to the FMCS headquarters in Washington, D.C., for further training.

In 2007, an FMCS commissioner briefed a delegation from Nigeria and the Chairman of the Coordinating Agency, New Institutive Community Development Center (NIDC). The delegation included representatives from the Ministry of Labor, the Nigeria Labor Congress, the Nigerian Ministry of Agriculture, and other officials.

Asia and the Pacific

In 2007, a delegation of the Korean Labor Education Institute met at the FMCS headquarters for a briefing on dispute resolution in the public sector.

The FMCS is taking part in an ongoing initiative by the U.S. government to engage the People’s Republic of China on labor and rule of law issues. In 2006, a team of FMCS mediators worked with the U.S. Department of Labor and the Chinese Ministry of Labor and Social Security to establish labor relations committees in local enterprises in Qingdao and to train Chinese government arbitrators in mediation. In 2007, the FMCS Director and Deputy Director visited Beijing, Qingdao, Guangzhou, and Shanghai and signed letters of understanding with China’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security and Ministry of Personnel. In 2008, FMCS mediators provided training in, among other topics, best practices and labor-management committees in Guangzhou and Shanghai. A significant outcome of this work has been a continuing dialogue with Chinese government officials and leading academics regarding the U.S. labor relations system and the importance of collective bargaining and the recognition of workers’ rights.

Through a partnership with the University of Michigan, the FMCS will help establish pilot labor relations committees at the enterprise level in six cities over a three-year period, starting in 2008. The pilot enterprises include multinational companies, joint ventures, and Chinese-owned firms.

In 2007, in conjunction with the Rotary International Peace and Conflict Studies Program at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, FMCS mediators presented courses on negotiations, mediation and cross cultural conflict resolution to government, management, labor, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) officials from more than 30 countries.

FMCS mediators have assisted the International Labor Organization (ILO) in training labor, management and government officials. In 2006, the FMCS Director spoke at major industrial relations conferences hosted by the ILO, describing the U.S. system of industrial relations and dispute resolution. Delegations from Vietnam have received briefings at the FMCS Washington D.C. headquarters during 2006 and 2007.

In 2007, the FMCS Director and Deputy Director represented the FMCS in meetings hosted by the All-English Speaking Mediation Services in Australia and New Zealand. FMCS representatives addressed Commissioners of the Western Australia Industrial Relations Commission regarding, techniques and methods of mediation and conciliation.

In 2007 FMCS presented workshops on the role of the FMCS and alternative dispute resolution to audiences of union and employer representatives, academics, and government officials in Berlin, Erfurt, and Reutlingen.

Having assisted in the creation of the first mediation service in an Eastern European nation in 1997, FMCS mediators returned in 2006 to train a new class of Hungarian labor mediators. In addition, FMCS has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hungarian Mediation Service intended to promote interagency cooperation. Officials from Hungary have toured the United States and observed labor relations dispute resolution techniques here.

Since 2000, the FMCS has participated in an annual exchange program with the Irish Labour Relations Commission. Mediators and managers from each country spend at least one week shadowing their counterparts in mediation, training, and visits with key labor and management stakeholders. In 2006, officials from the Irish Labour Relations Commission took part in an exchange visit to the United States where they met with labor, management, and government officials throughout the United States.

In 2006, FMCS participated in a public diplomatic initiative to train 40 mediators from selected counties. This project, modeled on a program that first began in the District of Columbia court’s mediation program, had the cooperation of the U.S. Department of State, the Romanian Ministry of Justice, and the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest.

In 2007, at the request of the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires and the Argentine Ministry of Labor, FMCS mediators in Washington D.C. participated in a video conference on labor mediation and training with an audience in Buenos Aires.

Pursuant to a 10-year project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the FMCS has engaged in a systems-design and training project that has included the establishment of the Panamanian Mediation Service. The Panama Canal Authority hosted a conference in 2007 that featured a keynote address by the FMCS Director.




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