FMCS | 250 E Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20427 | 202-606-8100 | www.fmcs.gov

NEWS RELEASE

Thursday, July 14, 2022 Contact: Greg Raelson

For Immediate Release Director, Congressional & Public Affairs

Website: www.fmcs.gov Phone: (202) 606-8081

Labor and Management Industry, Sports, and Government 

Leaders Make National Conference a Virtual All-Star Event

WASHINGTON, D.C.(July 14, 2022) – The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) National 

Labor-Management Conference (NLMC), held virtually on July 12-13, once again demonstrated why it is 

considered the nation’s premier labor-management event.

The NLMC is the largest labor-management conference in the country;this year, the more than 1,200

registered participantsincluded leaders in business, labor, government, academia, mediation, 

arbitration, and, with this year’s event, professional sports as well.

The conference opened with a welcome from FMCS Acting Director Gregory Goldstein andDeputy 

Director of Field Operations(and President Joseph Biden’s nominee to lead the agency) Javier Ramirez, 

followed by a special pre-recordedmessage fromPresident Biden.

National Labor-Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel JenniferAbruzzo presented during the NLMC’s 

opening plenary session on July 12, highlighting the importance of building positive relationships 

between employers and workers in the workplace. She also updated conference attendees on NLRB

initiatives and took a variety of questionssubmitted by members of the audience using the conference’s 

Q&A function.

“Encouraging very productive labor-management relations...whether a union represents workers or not, 

is a crucial step towards promoting workplace and industrial stability,” said Abruzzo. “When workers’ 

voices are heard issues are addressed and workplace conflict diminishes. Then everybody wins –

businesses, communities, workers-they will all flourish.”

The workplace issues faced by professional athletes drew a large crowd for the closing plenary on Day 1: 

“How Collective Bargaining Can Help Achieve Gender Equity in Professional Sports & Beyond,”which

featured a panel discussion with National Women’s Soccer League Players Association (NWSLPA) 

President Tori Huster, AFL-CIO Vice President and Executive Director of NWSLPA Meghann Burke, and 

attorney Deborah R. Willig, and was led by newly elected AFL-CIOPresident Liz Shuler. 

FMCS also welcomed back Dr. Peter Coleman, Executive Directorof Columbia University’s Advanced 

Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity in the Earth. Professor Coleman’s well-attended 
FMCS | 250 E Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20427 | 202-606-8100 | www.fmcs.gov

plenary session, “The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization” took a deep dive into what many 

consider one of the most significant crises facing modern America – both in the workplace and beyond.

The theme for this year’s conference was “Future@Work: Reimagining the Workplace” with a focus on 

the twin impacts of pandemic and a challenging economy on industrial relations. The NLMC also focused 

on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) issues in the workplace, and featured a side-track 

on federal sector unionization during the Biden administration. Other notable sessions addressed

challenges facing private, public, and federal sectors workplaces, such as hiring, the “Great Resignation,” 

managing workplace conflict, utilization of dispute resolution processes, the effects of inflation on the 

U.S. workforce, and contemporary collective bargaining approaches.

In addition to the robust schedule of individual workshops and panel discussions, this year’s NLMC 

offered six complimentary preconference sessions as a benefit to early registrants. These popular 

sessions covered a wide range of topics including cognitive bias in conflict dynamics, managing the 

integration of new bargaining units, and combating worker burnout in overstressed workplaces. 

“FMCS strives to ensure that the NLMC provides engaging, informative, content that is useful to 

conference participants from all sectors of labor relations nationwide,” said Ramirez.

“The NLMC also goes far beyond discussing best practices,” Ramirez continued. “Our goal is to 

investigate emerging trends in American industrial relations, learn and share stories of success, and 

receive hard-nosed strategic insights from our country’s leading experts.” 

At the close of the two-day event, U.S. Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh offered his remarks to the 

plenary, “I want to thank everyone from labor, management, government, academics, and the 

mediation/arbitration community, who are part of this important conference. Thank you for coming 

together to expand your knowledge and strengthen your relationships.”

“Most of all, I want to say thank you [to FMCS]. The work you do is incredibly important to America’s 

workers, America’s businesses, and to our entire economy,” Secretary Walsh said.

The FMCS National Labor-Management Conference was founded in 1982 and is generally held biennially

as a showcase of FMCS services and programs for existing and prospective management and labor 

clients; the event attracted hundreds of attendees from the labor relations community in its early years

and eventually expanding into a multi-day conference (and series of pre-conference events)that draws

upwards of 1,000 - 1,500 attendees.

Though the 2022 conference has just concluded, planning is already underway for FMCS to combine the 

NLMC with the Labor and Employment Relations Association’s(LERA) Annual Conference inNew York in

2024. This co-sponsorship will not only bring efficiencies, but also allow for more collaboration between 

the various stakeholders in the labor-management community. To learn more about NLMC, or to receive 

updatesfor future conferences, visit https://www.fmcs.gov/nlmc-info/

###
FMCS | 250 E Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20427 | 202-606-8100 | www.fmcs.gov

The U.S. Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service (FMCS) is the nation’s premier public agency for 

dispute resolution and conflict management. FMCS was created by Congress as a neutral and 

independent government agency upon enactment of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947 (TaftHartley Act) and mandated to resolve industrial conflict and promote labor-management peace and 

cooperation, minimizing the impact of these disputes on the free flow of commerce. With headquarters 

in Washington, D.C. and offices across the country, the agency has a proud track record of decades of 

effective dispute resolution and conflict management services for employers and unions across industries 

and work activities in the private, public, and federal sectors. FMCS is also recognized for its success 

facilitating negotiated rulemaking processes and for its robust employment mediation program in the 

federal sector as well as its global program, partnering with more than 60 countries to provide 

international consulting and training. For more on FMCS or to request services, visit www.fmcs.gov