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FLRA NEWS |
FLRA Chairman Donald S. Wasserman, General Counsel Joseph Swerdzewski, and Federal Service Impasses Panel Chair Bonnie P. Castrey today announced the appointment of an Acting Director of the FLRA's Collaboration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (CADR) Office. At her request, Fern Feil Kaufman, the current Director, will assume a new part-time senior attorney position in the CADR Office to better balance her work and family interests. The FLRA will continue to rely on Ms. Kaufman's expertise and contributions to the accomplishment of the CADR Program's mission. Steven Svartz, the Assistant General Counsel for Legal Services in the Office of the General Counsel, has agreed to assume the responsibilities of Acting Director of the CADR Office in addition to continuing to perform the responsibilities of his current position.
The CADR program provides overall coordination and support for the FLRA's labor-management collaboration and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) efforts. The CADR program assists parties both in preventing disputes before they become cases and in crafting ways to informally resolve disputes in pending cases. The program also provides facilitation, intervention, training, and education services to help parties develop better labor-management relationships. The CADR Office, which was founded in 1995, assists all FLRA components in the delivery of ADR services. Since its inception, the CADR Program has provided its services to thousands of FLRA customers.
Mr. Svartz has extensive experience with the FLRA, having served previously as a Chief Counsel to several FLRA Members and as Deputy Solicitor. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgetown University Law Center.
The Federal Labor Relations Authority is an independent agency that administers 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. More information about the CADR program is available on the FLRA Web Site, www.flra.gov.