International Services
While the primary mission of the FMCS is the promotion of improved labor-management relations in the United States, the Service also provides technical assistance to many other nations. Its efforts are designed to support U.S. companies and workers in the global market by advocating core labor standards for all nations. By strengthening the rule of law and workers’ rights, the Service’s programs encourage the creation of the stable and productive labor forces that are needed to support economic growth and stability. Moreover, the FMCS helps establish the labor relations institutions that are essential to the smooth functioning of market economies.
The FMCS has become a leading international exporter of conflict resolution and mediation systems, often through agreements with the U.S. Departments of State and Labor and the Agency for International Development, as well as with organizations such as the International Labor Organization and the United Nations. Traveling abroad or at FMCS headquarters in Washington, D.C., FMCS mediators have briefed or trained business, labor, and government delegations from many countries. The FMCS itself has become the pattern for a number of newly established mediation agencies around the world.
The FMCS also provides briefings for foreign leaders on industrial relations processes and institutional responses to change in the industrial relations environment. The Service also offers programs for foreign labor attachés and arranges and facilitates meetings for foreign representatives with American industrial relations practitioners. International visitors also may register for courses offered by the Agency’s Institute for Conflict Management. Special tutorials also have been set up for small groups of foreign visitors with interest in relationship development, training, and observation of field mediators in actual cases.
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