FLRA NEWS


FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY · WASHINGTON, DC · 20424

April 22, 2002 · PR 02-03
Contact: Jill Crumpacker
202-482-6690, ex. 406

PRESIDENT BUSH APPOINTS MEMBERS TO THE
FEDERAL SERVICE IMPASSES PANEL

President Bush has appointed Mark A. Carter, John Cruz, and Grace Flores-Hughes as Members of the Federal Service Impasses Panel (Panel). The seven-member Panel is the component of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (Authority) that resolves impasses between Federal agencies and unions representing employees arising from negotiations over conditions of employment.

The newly-appointed Members join Chairman Becky Norton Dunlop and Members Richard Ainsworth, Andrea Newman, and Joseph Whitaker to complete a richly diverse Panel characterized by far-ranging Federal sector and private sector experience in employment and labor issues.

Mark A. Carter, of Charleston, West Virginia, currently practices law with the law firm of Heenan, Althen & Roles, Charleston, West Virginia offices. Mr. Carter currently serves as the Management Chair of the Annual Meetings subcommittee of the Section of Labor and Employment Law of the ABA. Mr. Carter previously served on the Antitrust, RICO and Labor Law Committee of the ABA. In addition, Mr. Carter has published numerous articles in the area of labor and employment law, including serving as a contributing editor of The Developing Labor Law, BNA Publications (2000). Mr. Carter received his undergraduate degree from The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, where he was a Burnett Scholar. He received his J.D. from West Virginia University. Mr. Carter will serve a term ending January 10, 2004.

John Cruz, of San Clemente, California, currently practices law with a focus on transactional matters, including business, commercial, corporate, and environmental issues. A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Mr. Cruz was admitted to the California bar in 1979. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business, with emphasis in Accounting, from California State University, Fullerton. Mr. Cruz is a member of the National Hispanic Bar Association and was formerly trustee and treasurer of the Hispanic Bar Association of Orange County, California. He has been active in numerous philanthropic organizations, including serving as a member of the board of directors for The Latino Coalition and for The Lincoln Club of Orange County. Mr. Cruz has also been actively involved with the Hispanic Education Endowment Fund of Orange County, California, and has served as a lecturer at the Instituto Tecnologico de Monterey, Guadalajara, Mexico. He is a member of the University of Michigan Alumni Association. Mr. Cruz will serve a term ending January 10, 2004.

Grace Flores-Hughes, of Alexandria, Virginia, currently lectures on managing a culturally diverse workforce in the public/private sector. Previously, she was Vice President for Congressional & Inter-governmental Affairs, USTAR, LLC, USTAR. Mrs. Flores-Hughes is a former Presidential appointee, during the Administrations of President Reagan and George Bush. She served as the Director/Assistant Attorney General of Community Relations Service (CRS) for the Department of Justice, where she developed policies and established priorities to resolve racial and ethnic conflict in communities throughout the country, including resettlement of Cuban/Haitian refugees in the United States. Mrs. Flores-Hughes began her federal career as a GS-2 at Kelly Air Force Base. She transferred to the Department of Health, Education & Welfare, where she assumed higher levels of management responsibility. She later served as Acting Director of the Office of Hispanic Americans at the Department of Health & Human Services, developing and implementing social policy and programs regarding Hispanic Americans, including coining the term “Hispanic” for the federal government. Later, she was Associate Administrator for Minority Small Business and Capital Ownership Development. Mrs. Flores-Hughes holds a Master of Arts Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University and a B.A. from the University of the District of Columbia. She is a native of Taft, Texas. Mrs. Flores-Hughes will serve a term ending January 10, 2004.

The FLRA is an independent regulatory agency established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 to administer the labor-management relations program for 1.9 million Federal employees worldwide, 1.1 million of whom are exclusively represented in 2,200 bargaining units. The FLRA fulfills its statutory responsibilities primarily through three independent operating components: the Authority, the Office of the General Counsel, and the Federal Service Impasses Panel (the Panel). The FLRA also supports two other components, the Foreign Service Impasse Disputes Panel and the Foreign Service Labor Relations Board, both of which were established within the FLRA by the Foreign Service Act of 1980.


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