Once again, I will be a panelist and speaker at the San Francisco Labor Law and Labor Arbitration Institute on August 22 and 23. Everyone learns a lot in this in-depth and interactive event.
Labor Arbitration Blog
COVID-19 Update
Like many other people, I’ve been “sheltering in place” for the past two weeks. As soon as I started, I reached out to parties who had scheduled hearings in the coming weeks and invited them to cancel without penalty. I’ve continued to keep my availability calendar current, however, I do not intend to do in-person hearings until at least May 1. With so many cancellations (and many other cases not yet scheduled), I recommend that you consider whether your case might be amenable to a video hearing. I have Zoom and am happy to set that up. Otherwise, I recommend requesting hearing dates for the summer, as my time will fill up quickly when the shelter-in-place order is lifted. I look forward to working with you and BE WELL!
Address Change Effective March 1, 2019
My office will be moving to East Span Studios. Effective March 1, 2019, my physical address will be 953 W. MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, CA 94608. I will have limited conference room availability, if necessary, for parties who are unable to agree on a location for their hearing. Please contact me at andrealdooley (at) gmail (dot) com for more information.
Save the Date for Meet the Arbitrator
Every couple of years, the Northern California Region of the National Academy of Arbitrators hosts a great event called “Meet the Arbitrator.” This full-day conference includes many opportunities to meet local labor arbitrators and hear how they consider the most current pressing issues arising in labor arbitration today. Participants can get MCLE credit and lunch for a very low registration fee. The next “Meet the Arbitrator” is scheduled for April 26, 2019 from 8:00am-4:30pm at Milton Marks Conference Center, 455 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, and I will posting registration information when it’s available. In the meantime, mark your calendars for this great event.
Updated Published Decisions
The California State Mediation and Conciliation Service publicizes fact-finding reports that have become public, and I’ve added links to a couple of my published reports on my Published Decisions page. Fact-finding reports differ from arbitration decisions. They are essentially recommended settlements for collective bargaining agreements that have gone to impasse, and the recommendations are often used by the parties to reach agreement and avoid a strike. If the parties don’t reach agreement within 10 days, the reports become public.
My Social Media Policy
The other day, a party representative commented on this website, saying that she appreciated the availability calendar because it had simplified the process of scheduling our hearing. Other arbitrators, I’ve learned, don’t maintain their own website, and quite a few are leery of having an internet presence at all. In a gathering of arbitrators and would-be arbitrators, I found that very few people had even done an internet search of their name to learn that the parties might find out about them while doing internet research.
I’ve written before about the ethics of social media for neutrals, and you can read that article here, if you like. I also thought it would be helpful to let parties know my personal policy on social media, where I do maintain accounts on the most common social media sites. Here’s my personal policy for each of my social media accounts:
Facebook: I accept requests from or maintain Facebook connections to people I personally socialize with or have been employed with or volunteered with in the past. I don’t accept friend requests from unions, employers or their representatives, staff or members. I maintain a separate Facebook page for my arbitration practice that is publicly available to view.
LinkedIn: I accept all requests from people in the United States and Canada who are likely to have some nexus to my profession, such as HR and union professionals who I have not worked with but who may be looking for my current resume. I don’t have personal connections to very many of the people I am connected to on LinkedIn, and my connection to someone should not be taken as evidence of any personal connection or even knowledge of that person.
Instagram and Twitter: I follow very few people outside of my immediate family and friend groups (Instagram) or journalists, comedians and politicians (Twitter), but haven’t had an occasion to block any followers. Don’t bother following me there; it’s mostly pictures of my dog and my garden, or posts about my non-work writing and reposts of news articles I found interesting. Retweets are not endorsements.
I recognize that this is somewhat unorthodox and welcome feedback about it. Please submit any questions and comments you have. Thanks!