In closing remarks at the FMCS Future@Work National Labor-Management Conference, FMCS Director Allison Beck pointed to the new problem-solving tools and techniques highlighted by speakers and presenters at the Conference that can help unions and employers find their way through complex new workplace issues of the 21st century.

FMCS Director Allison Beck at Conference final session

FMCS Director Allison Beck at Future@Work conference conclusion

In summing up the three days of expert speakers, more than 70 workshops and informal dialogue among attendees and participants at the FMCS national conference, Director Beck told the more than 1,000 attendees that a main point emerging from the program was, “In this new economy–people have to work together and trust each other.“

“Working together,” she told attendees, “It’s possible to find common ground, to find solutions. And there are so many new tools and techniques to help you do that. None of them are complicated.

“Sometimes they mean learning a fact–like learning that robots can actually increase jobs, not eliminate them,” she said.
“Sometimes they mean remembering history–like recalling that the challenges of the gig economy are really not new, that our colleagues in industries as different as construction and performing arts solved them decades ago.

“And, sometimes they mean learning some science, that what was once an esoteric science about brain function is fundamental to the success of our organizations” she said.

Concluding, she declared, “We can fix our economy and make our country stronger—if labor and management work together: communicate and compromise, sacrifice and listen, find common ground, and use common sense for the common good.”

“And, if you stumble,” she told the audience of labor and management representatives, “I promise you that FMCS will be there to get you back on track.”

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