Tia Schneider Denenberg
Arbitrator/Mediator
1. What is the focus of the session?
LERA Workshop Presentation Title: “User-Friendly Arbitration: Helping the Process Serve the Parties” (May 29, 2015)
Experienced neutrals explain how parties can re-shape the arbitration process to improve their relationship and resolve disputes more effectively. The user-friendly attributes are those that first commended arbitration to unions and management: simplicity, accessibility, flexibility, and finality. Unnecessary procedural complexity, formality, and delay were eschewed. Too often, however, today’s arbitrations ape the rituals of litigation, becoming unduly complex and confrontational while losing their true character as a means of reconciliation. The parties may emerge with a relationship that has been damaged rather than strengthened.
- Topics Include:
- Is This Arbitration Case Really Necessary? A Guide to Self-Analysis.
- Dealing Fairly and Effectively with Witnesses.
- Keeping the Dispute in Perspective.
- Setting the Right Tone.
- Shedding Unnecessary Formalities.
- Information Sharing.
- A Common-Sense Approach to Interpreting a Labor Agreement.
- How User-Friendly Arbitration Enhances Labor-Management Partnerships.
2. One key takeaway:
Participants in the session will learn how to reverse the relentless tide of legalism and recapture the underlying spirit of reconciliation and user satisfaction that originally prevailed in arbitration.
3. Predictions about how the research might influence the next generation and their world of work.
The findings and strategies put forward in the session will ensure that an effective conflict resolution system exists in the future world of work. The discussion will help project forward the traditional values of simplicity and accessibility that have made it possible to resolve workplace conflict.