ABSTRACT
A dispute between a school board and a teachers’ association provided an opportunity for positive mediation to work. The mediator began by meeting with each side separately to hear its position, keeping the negotiating teams apart from each other. Being a labor mediator is a tough job. It is a demanding one in any area of labor relations, and in public employment it is complicated by a host of special circumstances: strikes by public employees are prohibited by law in most states and limited in the others. A mediator in a public employment dispute deals with people involved in several layers of relationships: that of the negotiators on each team with their colleagues and with those on the other side. In public employment, the bargaining issues are arrayed against and entwined with the ever-present background; a mediator needs a sense of all these relationships in order to be effective.
