Anxious thoughts on the future of labor arbitration

Abstract

As a labor-management arbitrator for more than 60 years, I have witnessed the practice change from an informal, problem-solving conference to a formal, lawyered, adversarial combat where winning preempts compromise. The contrast reflects the changing nature of the workplace and workforce, the altered priorities of the parties, the rising cost of bringing cases to arbitration, the changes in  balance of power between unions and employers, and the shrinking role that unions have struggled to maintain in the increasingly antagonistic  political and legal warfare of the current labor–management relationship.