June 10, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATIONAL MEDIATION BOARD

Contact: NMB Public Information Line — (202) 692-5050

Re:  The National Mediation Board (NMB) Initiates Expedited Mediation

Washington, D.C. — In a speech before the American Law Institute-American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) on Thursday, June 9, the National Mediation Board Director for Mediation, Larry Gibbons, announced the establishment of an Expedited Mediation Project. The Project, he said, is an agency response to last year’s Dunlop II Committee’s Final Report, which had "...recommended, among other things, that case management strategies be developed to help address [mediation] disputes in a timely and methodical manner."

After illuminating what he believes is the longest official cooling-off period for a mediation case in the history of the agency, Mr. Gibbons revealed details of the NMB Expedited Mediation Project. For a mediation case to be accepted for expeditious handling, the parties must "jointly apply for mediation and request consideration for expedited mediation at the time of application," he said. If the Board accepts a case on an expedited basis, the agency will assist the parties in negotiating a protocol agreement, which will establish expectations and guide the expedited mediation process on a case-by-case basis. If Expedited Mediation does not result in an agreement by the parties, the National Mediation Board, at its discretion, will determine how to proceed with the mediation case.

Full text of the official description of the Expedited Mediation Project can be found on the Mediation and the What’s New pages of the NMB website (www.nmb.gov).

The National Mediation Board is an independent Federal agency established by the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor-management relations within two key transportation sectors of the United States and U.S. territories: the railroads and airlines. Dunlop II is an independent Dunlop Committee Reports Review Committee formed to examine the internal functions, policies and procedures of the NMB and the recommendations of the Dunlop Commission of the 1990s. This Dunlop II Committee was asked to report to the Board its recommendations for agency improvement.

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