Critical Steps to Prepare for Arbitration

Tuesdays, 4/29-5/27/2025   5 week virtual zoom class

When a grievance cannot be resolved by direct conversations or through the grievance process, arbitration may be necessary. Before arriving at the arbitration hearing, thorough preparation can make the hearing more efficient, and hence less costly, and ensure that the arbitrator has the record necessary to make a sound decision.

In this class we will cover:

Clarity about what remedy is being sought.

Theory of the case.

Necessary witnesses.

Necessary exhibits.

Past practices or decisions.

Closing arguments, oral or written.

Course Goal: To understand the arbitration process and the ways it is used in labor relations disputes. By the end of the course, participants will know how to use the grievance procedure and work with other representatives and attorneys to prepare an effective presentation before an arbitrator.

Course Style: After laying a foundation of the basic concepts, each week the class will work through the steps leading to the hearing.

Instructor: Sheila Mayberry is a full-time labor-management arbitrator and Chairwoman of the Maine Labor Relations Board. She is on the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA) and Co-Chair of the 2024 NAA Annual Meeting in Boston. She has also been Co-Chair of NAA New England. She organized the first several years of the annual Labor Arbitration Conference in partnership with the University of Rhode Island.

She has also taught several courses at the Labor Guild, the AAA, and the Becoming and a Labor Arbitrator  (BALA) course with the FMCS. Prior to her arbitration career, Ms. Mayberry was an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Philadelphia, PA. She received her B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from Temple Beasley Law School in Philadelphia.

Instructor: Elizabeth Neumeier has been a full-time practitioner in the field of dispute resolution since 1983. Her primary area of practice is the arbitration of labor-management disputes. Ms. Neumeier served for 10 years as an arbitrator for United States Steel Corporation and the United Steelworkers of America in Pittsburgh, PA. She expanded her practice to a wide variety of the private and public sectors after returning to her native Massachusetts in 1993.

Ms. Neumeier was admitted to the National Academy of Arbitrators (NAA) in 1990 and served as a member of the NAA Board of Governors and as Vice President, and she continues to serve on numerous committees, nationally and for the New England region. She currently chairs the Program Committee for the Labor Arbitration Conference, sponsored by the University of Rhode Island Charles T. Schmidt, Jr. Labor Research Center in partnership with the NAA New England Region. In 1991-1992 she served President of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (SPIDR), now the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR).

Ms. Neumeier has a B.A. in Economics from New York University, a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and is a member of the Massachusetts bar. Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick appointed Ms. Neumeier to the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board in 2008, where she served for eight years.