[United States Government Manual]
[June 01, 2000]
[Pages 478-480]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




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

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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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