Mediator Negotiated Top Labor Disputes During Carter Years (WAYNE L. HORVITZ, 88 )

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/22/AR2009062202855.html

WAYNE L. HORVITZ, 88

By Rebekah Davis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Wayne L. Horvitz, 88, who as a top federal mediator in the Carter administration helped end a massive coal miners' strike, died June 17 at his home in Washington. He had cancer.

Mr. Horvitz, whose father had been a prominent labor arbitrator, spent almost 60 years in labor negotiation and mediation. His professional experience was largely on the corporate side of labor relations, notably as chief strategic adviser in Washington for the freight carrier Matson Navigation.


1979 photo of Wayne L. Horvitz, 88, who as a top federal mediator in the Carter administration helped bring an end to major labor stoppages including a massive coal miners strike and a dispute among musicians working for New YorkÕs Metropolitan Opera, died June 17 at his home in Washington. He had cancer. (James M. Thresher - The Washington Post)


President Jimmy Carter named him director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in 1977. The next year, Mr. Horvitz helped negotiate a contract that ended a 63-day strike by Appalachian and Midwest coal miners.

United Mine Workers faced intensive labor negotiations at a time when it had recently shed many of its top staff members after a series of internal problems. Mr. Horvitz, convinced that a well-organized union was essential to successful negotiations, made the unusual move of helping to recruit support staff and consultants for the union, including a Washington lawyer who became chief negotiator for the United Mine Workers.

FULL story at link.