The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, created in 1947, is an independent agency whose mission is to preserve and promote labor-management peace and cooperation. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with two regional offices and more than 70 field offices, the agency provides mediation and conflict resolution services to industry, government agencies, and communities.
The FMCS uses dispute mediation and other conflict resolution services tools and techniques to promote collective bargaining, strengthen labor-management relations, and enhance organizational effectiveness.
Some of the services the FMCS provides include the following:
- Dispute resolution and conflict management. The resolution of labor-management disputes associated with collective bargaining, and with other workplace conflicts, which is at the core of the FMCS mission.
- Preventive mediation. Services and training in cooperative processes to help labor and management break down traditional barriers and build better working relationships.
- eServices. Leading-edge technology services for bargaining, consensus-building, dispute mediation, and conflict resolution.
- Arbitration. Referral services that use a national database of qualified private-sector arbitrators. Labor and management can request referrals on the basis of criteria that include geographic area, professional affiliation or industry experience.
- Grievance mediation. Providing parties with a mediator to settle a grievance before it reaches the more costly stage of arbitration.
- Collective bargaining mediation. A voluntary process occurring when a third party neutral assists the two sides in reaching a collective bargaining agreement.
