Originially from: World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

The Union and Management Stake in the World
of Alternative Dispute Resolution
By Arnold M. Zack. Mr. Zack was one of the originators of the "Due
Process Protocol for Mediation and Arbitration of Statutory Disputes
Arising Out of the Employment Relationship." He is an arbitrator and a
mediator who teaches at the Harvard University Trade Union Program and
has taught ADR at Yale Law School. He is also a past president of the
National Academy of Arbitrators. This article was adapted from a paper
given by Mr. Zack on May 1, 1997 at the Ben Aaron Lecture at UCLA,
jointly sponsored by the Institute of Industrial Relations and the Labor and
Employment Section of the Los Angeles Bar Association. [Editor's Note:
With this piece, Mr. Zack continues his reporting on the Due Process
Protocol, of which he is one of the authors. Previous installments can be
found in 6 WAMR 217 (Oct. 1995), 7 WAMR 10 (Dec./Jan. 95/96) and 7
WAMR 178 (July 1996).]
I have on my office wall the October 20, 1945 invitation from President
Harry S. Truman to Matthew Woll, AFL Vice President, to attend the
Nov. 5, 1945 labor-management conference the President had called. The
letter reads in part:
I have called this conference to bring together
representative leaders of labor and management in an effort
to establish long term policies which will make possible
better labor and management relationships in American
industry. If this conference is successful, we will be able to
speed up reconversion and will lay the foundation for what
I sincerely hope will be the greatest era of industrial
progress in the Nation's history.
As we all know that conference triggered the widespread introduction of
voluntary arbitration for the resolution of labor management disputes. This
year marks the fiftieth anniversary of a number of labor management
institutions which evolved from that initiative for industrial cooperation:
The National Academy of Arbitrators, the Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service and the Industrial Relations Research Association.
That is more than mere coincidence. All three institutions have their origin
in the goal of encouraging the resolution of industrial relations disputes
between union and management. And all have contributed to the long