The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) is a federal agency created by the TAFT-HARTLEY ACT (1947) to assist labor and MANAGEMENT relationships. The FMCS offers six categories of services, as follows.
• mediation of disputes and CONTRACT negotiations for private, public, and federal sectors
• preventive mediation, providing services and training in cooperative labor and management relationships
• alternative dispute resolution, providing services and training in a variety of problem-solving approaches that can be used in lieu of litigation, agency adjudication, or traditional rule-making by federal, state, and local governments
• ARBITRATION services, maintaining a computerized roster of qualified arbitrators
• labor-management grants, administering a grants program to fund cooperative, innovative joint labormanagement committees
• international services, providing international dispute resolution and international labor education
The goal of the FMCS is to minimize labor-management conflict and, in the process, support ECONOMIC GROWTH. The FMCS is a very small agency, with less than 300 workers and a budget of less than $40 million annually. Its director is appointed by the U.S. president with the advice and consent of the Senate.