Lynette Ross’s Hopes and Dreams for NARR

(Nominee for Vice-President, Midwest)

May 25, 2004

After giving serious thought about the question at hand, the goals I believe NARR might find of worthy pursuit are (1) to increase NARR’s membership; (2) to educate and provide arbitration opportunities for all NARR members included on the NMB’s roster of neutrals; (3) to maintain and continue to cultivate a positive relationship with the NMB and the carrier and organization representatives on the NRAB’s four divisions; and (4) through NARR’s members, serve rail labor and management by delivering quality arbitration services.

Therefore, if I were participating in this exercise at a NARR brainstorming session, I would not hesitate to offer the above suggestions. These items might just be the proverbial “tip of the iceberg,” as the other Vice-Presidents undoubtedly have their own goals and visions for NARR. Taking each item in turn, my comments are as follows:

1.        “Grow NARR” - By definition, NARR is comprised of neutrals who have been selected or appointed to hear arbitration cases in the rail industry. With the concept of “strength in numbers” in mind, and because the RLA provisions and NMB processes guide the airline industry arbitration, as well, NARR as an enduring organization might consider extending membership to airline arbitrators.

2.        Education and Provide Opportunity for Members - In addition to the training opportunities open to members at the annual conferences, NARR should continue to keep abreast of industry news and events from the carriers’ and organizations’ perspectives, and communicate such information via our website.  Obviously, educating our members on the NMB electronic form submission process, videoconferencing and other emerging technology will remain top priorities.

Encouraging parties to hold referee hearings at rail field locations would allow our members to gain practical continuing education with respect to the railroad work environment by observing operations, touring facilities, and examining equipment.  NARR members might also increase familiarity with the parties’ labor relations and claims handling processes by participating in NRLC, NMB or organization-sponsored training programs. The NARR mentoring initiative should be encouraged, and appreciation should be shown for the NMB’s efforts to expose neutrals new to rail arbitration by forwarding the resumes of those neutrals to the parties. Likewise, parties who have taken the leap of faith by appointing new rail neutrals to boards should receive some measure of recognition by NARR.

3.         Maintain and Continue to Cultivate a Positive Relationship with the NMB and NRAB - Our participation in the automated pay pilot, videoconferencing, and willingness to train NARR members during our September conference and at other venues is an example of a partnership with the NMB that should be continued and expanded. In addition, NARR should continue to send a representative to meetings, such as the Section 3 and proposed rule-making meetings. With the parties’ approval, NARR-member neutrals perhaps could be tapped by the NMB to help facilitate deadlocked disputes and alleviate any backlogged cases through (compensable) ADR approaches, other than traditional arbitration, such as grievance mediation, “med-arb” approaches, or rendering abbreviated awards.

4.         Continue to Serve Rail Labor and Management by Delivering Quality Arbitration Services - Perhaps by tackling the above three items, the fourth will follow. NARR’s emphasis should be on training members, keeping members informed of industry news, communicating and cooperatively working with the carriers, unions and agencies, and encouraging the parties’ to select NARR-member neutrals for their arbitration needs. We have heard the compliments and criticisms regarding our work. We need to put that information to the highest and best use in order to ensure the continued success of NARR in the future.

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