Donald Schroeder Highlights FMCS Importance Amid Service's Uncertain Future

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Donald Schroeder described the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services’ (FMCS) importance in the Law360 article, “As Feds’ Bargaining Mediator Ails, New Services Emerge.”

While FMCS mediation is voluntary and does not bind employers and unions that call on the agency, Schroeder said that its mediators can help keep negotiations moving along when they would otherwise collapse.

“What they provide is a buffer between the vitriol…in a way that can allow the parties to keep from having the wheels fall off,” Schroeder explained, noting the service’s particular value when parties are negotiating for the first time or over high-stakes issues.

With uncertainty over the service’s future, Schroeder emphasized the benefits FMCS delivers.

“This is an important service, and it provides real value to the business community and for the wider population,” Schroeder added. “Perhaps [the FMCS’ funding] still will not be where it was before, but it just strikes me that Congress is going to want to figure out a way to reenergize that organization.”

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