June 4, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD

Re.: National Policy Forum on Shaping Labor & Employment Policy

[Advisory: The Industrial Relations Research Association (IRRA) National Policy Forum (NPF) will be held June 7 at the Omni-Shoreham in Washington, D.C. The IRRA is the premier national organization that is concerned with employment and labor-management relations issues with membership from labor, business, neutral, government and academic venues. National Mediation Board member Maggie Jacobsen is the IRRA president. Last year several news organizations covered the NPF. Please review the below announcement and visit the NPF 2001 web page concerning speakers, participants and the agenda. Please call Jim Armshaw, NPF co-chair at the National Mediation Board on 202 692-5022 for additional information.]

Announcement: The new Administration, Congress, business and labor are bringing their perspectives toward shaping the nation's labor and employment policy agenda. What are the key issues on their policy agendas? What issues should be given top priority? How do these fit into the changing global economy, workforce, and workplaces of the new century?

The IRRA's 3rd National Policy Forum will take up these questions in an interactive dialogue between representatives from the Administration, Senate and House committees, labor and business and NPF conferees. A major part of the conference will deal with a range of business and labor perspectives on globalization. Dr. Michael Maccoby, the highly distinguished scholar and author, will share his insights about how the new century will look from the workplace. A panel of distinguished labor and management experts will share their experience and discuss how globalization is driving significant changes and shaping how and where work is done. A separate session will report on the use of Alternate Dispute Resolution approaches to address the tension between improving labor standards and international competition. Another segment will focus on airline labor-management issues with carrier, union and neutral representatives.

Following morning and afternoon sessions, conferees will engage in facilitated roundtable discussions and their observations will be posted on a special conference web site. The site will be supported by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS)and will enable post-conference dialogue between conferees and others. The results of this dialogue will be presented at the IRRA Annual Meeting to be held at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta in January 3-6, 2002.

Limited registration is still available. For further information on the 2001 NPF, you may visit IRRA's web site at www.irra.uiuc.edu or contact the NPF co-chair Jim Armshaw at the National Mediation Board at 202 692-5023.