I was recently selected by the Employer and the Union to be the chairperson of the mediation / arbitration board for the City and County of San Francisco and San Francisco City Workers United (Painters). The issue was the renegotiation of the parties' collective bargaining agreement. After four days of on-the-record hearings and off-the-record mediation efforts, there were still twelve issues in dispute. The arbitration award for a three-year agreement was issued and has now been published on the Employer's and the Union's websites. The award is linked here. - Paul

I have now been added to two additional arbitration and factfinding panels. One is the American Arbitration Association's (AAA) Roster of Labor Arbitrators. AAA is the nation's leading provider of dispute resolution services. I have also been admitted to the Oregon Employment Relations Board's panel of factfinders and arbitrators. - Paul

I was selected by the parties to conduct a factfinding hearing in Modoc County, located in the far northeast corner of California. The report has now been published by the parties. Here is the report. - Paul

In early January, I conducted a factfinding hearing for Mendocino County and SEIU Local 1021.  The hearing concerned the parties' collective bargaining impasse. As chair of the factfinding panel, I wrote a report and recommendations on the issues in dispute. The parties have now published the report on their websites. Here is the report. - Paul

I had an opportunity on November 21, 2013 to serve on a panel of arbitrators at the annual conference of the CA Public Employment Labor Relations Association (CalPELRA) in Monterey CA.  The topic was "Factfinding and Interest Arbitration - Lessons Learned: An Arbitrator's Perspective." Serving on the panel with me were fellow arbitrator / factfinders Norm Brand and John LaRocco. Jonathan Holtzman from Renne, Sloan, Holtzman and Sakai was the moderator. Most of the discussion revolved around factfinding in Meyers Milias Brown (municipal government) jurisdictions since the factfinding statute kicked in on January 1, 2012. - Paul

Cathy Stevens, one of the premier trainers and facilitators of labor-management processes in California, has joined Golden Gate Dispute Resolution as an associate. She is available to train and facilitate in interest-based and other collective bargaining processes. To read more about Cathy, go here.

I now have two arbitration awards posted, with permission from the parties. The first is a Sacramento County - Teamsters Local 150 case involving a two-day suspension. The second is a contract interpretation case, also involving Sacramento County. In this case, the union involved is United Public Employees Local One. Go to this page to see the redacted decisions. - Paul

I was interviewed by several San Francisco Bay Area media outlets about the 2013 BART negotiations that resulted in a pair of four-day strikes. Here are two radio interviews. In the first, the main topic is the importance of the parties' honoring the mediator's media blackout. In the second interview, the focus is on the meaning of a "last, best, and final offer." - Paul [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/114470510" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/115378676" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

I am quoted in an article in the October 7, 2013 San Jose Mercury News, commenting on the dynamics of labor negotiations. Click here to read the article. - Paul

My findings and recommendations on the collective bargaining impasse between UC and AFSCME for its 8,000-member Service unit has been published. Read it here. - Paul

I have been admitted to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) Roster of Arbitrators, as of July 2013. My main address for FMCS is Oakland, CA. My secondary address is Ashland, Oregon. Therefore, my name will be included among those on lists when parties request the following sub-regional lists: Northern California and Oregon. My name will also be included on lists for Region 2 (CA, NV, AZ and HI) and Region 1 (OR, WA, AK, ID, MT, WY, UT and CO). - Paul

My work as a mediator was profiled in the July 12, 2013 edition of the Daily Journal, California's largest legal news provider. Here is a link to the article. Daily Journal Profile - Paul

I have recently brought on a new associate, Adele Grunberg. Adele specializes in interpersonal dispute resolution in the workplace. For more information about Adele, see here. - Paul

One of my MMBA factfinding reports, Shasta County and United Public Employees of California Local 792, recently was recently publicly released. Here is a link to the report. - Paul