News

The mediation is being conducted under the supervision of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). The statute instructs the parties that they “shall cooperate with the mediator in an effort to reach an agreement and shall meet and negotiate in good faith at such times and places that the mediator, in consultation with the parties, shall direct.” The mediation will continue for at least sixty days, unless the parties agree otherwise, either because they have reached a tentative agreement or because they and the mediator believe that an extension of the mediation process would be appropriate.



To this point, Mediator Fishgold has held three meetings with the parties and their representatives. Congressional efforts to preserve and protect the business and the finances of the Postal Service are ongoing, so the mediation process is unlikely to make progress until at least some of these underlying issues are decided.



As a mediator, Fishgold does not have the power to issue binding settlements or resolutions, and thus cannot compel the parties to reach an agreement. Rather, the mediator serves as a facilitator of discussions, making suggestions to the parties in an effort to keep the dialogue and process of negotiations moving forward.



In addition to the ongoing legislative issues, there are several other factors that also may have a large impact on the mediation. First, the American Postal Workers Union and the Postal Service reached a comprehensive agreement in March 2011, and that agreement has been held out by some as a pattern or a baseline for future negotiations. Second, the National Association of Letter Carriers also had a contract that expired in November 2011, and negotiations over that contract just entered the arbitration stage. Third, the Postal Service and the National Rural Letter Carriers Association are presently engaged in arbitration hearings, which started in December 2011 and are continuing into at least May 2012, and the results of that arbitration could have an effect on any future resolution of the NPMHU-USPS dispute.



If mediation proves unsuccessful, and the NPMHU and then USPS are otherwise unable to resolve their continuing dispute, they will go into further dispute resolution procedures, which will include binding interest arbitration before an arbitrator or independent decision-maker who will be selected or appointed to that position. That arbitration is likely to take several months to schedule and to implement.