Nov. 13, 2015

NAA member publishes Op-ED in LA Times: “Quit bashing arbitration”

Read the full LA Times Op-ED here: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1109-goldman-arbitration-20151109-story.html

Nov. 13, 2015

NAA Members react to NYT arbitration articles

Three NAA members independently registered comments with the New York Times in response to the newspaper’s articles on arbitration. Published letters to the editor came  from former NAA President Theodore J. St. Antoine, professor emeritus and Dean at the University of Michigan Law School, and Lise Gelernter, faculty member at the SUNY Buffalo Law School, about a recent series on arbitration: Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/opinion/forcing-consumers-into-arbitration.html?_r=0 Professor St. Antoine’s letter stated the following: “Re “Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking Deck of Justice” (“Beware the Fine Print” series, front page, Nov. 1): Properly administered by the American Arbitration Association, JAMS or other reputable body, arbitration before a private neutral party is cheaper, faster,…

Nov. 1, 2015

New York Times starts three part series on mandatory arbitration

The New York Times on Nov. 1, 2015 published the first part of an extensive  trilogy critical of mandatory arbitration and descriptive of the current legal status of class action matters under contracts of adhesion. Unfortunately, the articles failed to recognize the distinction between voluntary labor-management arbitration under contracts of cohension as a subset of “employment” arbitration. Their price has set off a flurry of reactions which ArbitrationInfo covers in other ‘News” posts. First the articles: Part 1: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/business/dealbook/arbitration-everywhere-stacking-the-deck-of-justice.html Part 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/business/dealbook/in-arbitration-a-privatization-of-the-justice-system.html Part 3: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/business/dealbook/in-religious-arbitration-scripture-is-the-rule-of-law.html…

Oct. 13, 2015

NAA responds to New York Times

Re: “Brutalized Behind Bars in New York State” (Ed., Sept. 30)Labor arbitration has a long and honorable history of peacefully resolving labor disputes. Labor arbitrators typically are neutrals selected by both parties and decide cases based on evidence presented at the arbitration hearing and the collective bargaining agreement.It is an urban legend that labor arbitrators often “split the baby”, as alleged in your editorial. The Code of Professional Responsibility adopted by the National Academy of Arbitrators, which was established in 1947, prohibits compromise by an arbitrator for the sake of attempting to achieve personal acceptability. As experienced practitioners in the…

Oct. 13, 2015

Arbitration Info responds to New York Times

Re: “Brutalized Behind Bars in New York State” (Ed., Sept. 30) Incidents involving physical violence by public service employees are matters of grave concern, but labor arbitration is not the culprit. The internal inconsistency of the assertions that arbitrators often “split the baby” and unions win a substantial majority of discipline cases demonstrates the value of consulting the available empirical evidence. A University of Minnesota study of over 2000 discipline arbitrations found that employers’ disciplinary decisions were fully sustained 50% of the time and fully reversed in only 21% of cases, with “split” decisions issued in 29% of cases. Another…

Sep. 13, 0216

Challenges to California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act

An opinion piece in the Visalia Times-Delta discusses litigation currently pending before the California Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the 2002 amendments to California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act. The amendments impose mandatory arbitration for labor contracts in the agricultural sector.  State Collective Bargaining Coercion Unconstitutional, Sept. 7, 2016.