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FLRA NEWS |
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September 24, 1999 · PR 113-99
Contact: Patty Reilly
202-482-6500
GENERAL COUNSEL ISSUES GUIDANCE ON DEVELOPING A LABOR RELATIONS STRATEGIC PLAN
The General Counsel of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, Joseph Swerdzewski, today issued a Guidance Memorandum to the FLRA's Regional Directors on how to assist union officials and management representatives in developing effective labor relations strategic plans to successfully deal with each other in the work place.
In making this Guidance available to the public, General Counsel Swerdzewski commented: "Much of labor relations in the Federal sector is reactive, with little or no planning involved. A labor relations strategic plan is a way to allow the parties to move away from simply reacting to each other, towards an approach where they can identify their labor relations goals, determine the strategy needed to reach those goals, and develop the actions needed to carry out that strategy. These plans can help parties achieve short term goals, such as dealing with stalled contract negotiations, significant backlogs of grievances and individual collective bargaining disputes, and also yield long-term improvements in parties' relationships, such as developing better communication practices, improving trust levels and increasing the use of collaborative processes such as interest-based bargaining and pre-decisional involvement."
The FLRA isan independent agency that administers the labor-management relations program for 1.9 million federal employees worldwide, 1.1 million of whom are exclusively represented in more than 2,200 bargaining units. The Office of the General Counsel is the independent investigative and prosecutorial component of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) which processes unfair labor practice charges and representation petitions through the Regional Offices, and assists parties in improving their labor-management relationship. The General Counsel periodically issues Guidances to the Regional Directors to provide leadership in promoting productive labor-management relationships in the Federal sector. The General Counsel directs the FLRA's Regional Offices located in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
The Guidance is available on the FLRA Web Site, www.flra.gov. Attached to this press release is the Guidance Memorandum and an Executive Summary. Questions or comments concerning this Guidance should be directed to FLRA Deputy General Counsel David Feder at (202) 482-6680, extension 203.
General Counsel Guidance on Developing a Labor Relations Strategic Plan