Washington, D.C. -- Michigan State University is making a great contribution in the study and understanding of labor-management issues and their effect on the workplace. Acknowledging and seeking to learn from that expertise, the Clinton Administration’s National Partnership Council (NPC) will convene its next meeting on the MSU campus on Wednesday, October 9.

“Our goal of creating a government that works better and costs less can only be met by enlisting the enthusiastic support and ability of federal labor-management partnerships, and that’s why the National Partnership Council goes on the road to learn from the people who are putting theory into practice,” said Jim King, Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and NPC Chair. “That’s why we are looking forward to hearing about the highly successful partnership efforts at the Michigan Army National Guard with the National Federation of Federal Employees, as well as the presentation by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Program of Innovative Employee Relations, at Michigan State University.”

The National Partnership Council will meet on:

The NPC was created by President Bill Clinton in 1993 to help forge labor-management agreements in federal agencies so that customers--taxpayers, the business community and other federal agencies--would be served in a more timely and cost-efficient manner. The Council meets regularly in Washington and at venues across the country.

Representatives from federal- and private-sector labor-management partnerships appear before the Council to explain and examine their initiatives. Lieutenant Colonel Joe McDowell of the Michigan Army National Guard will discuss his organization’s accomplishments, which include reducing the number of formal grievances to “zero” over an 18-month period and improving turn-around time by 20 percent on combat vehicles and weapons systems at the Combined Support Maintenance Shop. Lt. Col. McDowell is the Director of Surface Maintenance and manages the Army Guard’s largest full-time support force involved in equipment readiness. For the past three years, he has served as the Michigan Army National Guard’s chief management negotiator. Lt. Col. McDowell has a graduate degree from Western Michigan University.

Lt. Col. McDowell will be joined in his panel discussion by Brigadier General Robert Vern Taylor, and Gary Tucker, a Michigan Army National Guard Military Technician.

The NPC will also receive a presentation from representatives of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Program of Innovative Employee Relations, at Michigan State University.

Besides Chairman King, other NPC board members planning to attend are: Gary Divine, National President of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE); John Leyden, AFL-CIO Public Employee Department Secretary-Treasurer; and, Phyllis Segal, Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) Chair.

On the afternoon of October 9, the FLRA’s Phyllis Segal will participate in a classroom discussion with Michigan State students on labor mediation issues.

All sessions are open to the public and media.