IPS21 Nuts & Bolts of Strikes and Impasse Resolution

Melissa Auerbach Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Dowd, Bloch, Bennett, Cervone, Auerbach & Yokich, LLP

Gary Bailey Related Seminars and Products

Attorney

Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council

Gary Bailey has served as a labor attorney for the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council for over 35 years. Gary is involved in negotiations, grievance arbitrations and interest arbitrations on behalf of sworn peace officers and law enforcement personnel across the State of Illinois.

Gary is an active member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Labor and Employment Law. Gary served on the LEL Section Council for eight years and is currently a Section Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates. Gary has been a member of the Section’s State and Local Government Bargaining and Employment Law Committee since 1992 and was the Union Co-Chairman of the Committee from 2009-2012. Gary contributes each year to the Committee’s Annual Report on Interest Arbitrations that occur across the country.

Gary received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and his juris doctor from Chicago-Kent College of Law. Gary was inducted as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers in 2008. 

Mark W. Bennett Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Laner Muchin, Ltd.

Mark joined Laner Muchin in 1997 as an associate and has been a partner at the Firm since 2003. He regularly negotiates collective bargaining agreements on behalf of employers for bargaining units ranging from four (4) to approximately 37,000 employees. Mark also regularly represents employers in Union election and representation cases and unfair labor practice cases before the National Labor Relations Board, the Illinois Labor Relations Board, and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.

Mark also represents employers in charges of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Illinois Department of Human Rights. In addition, he provides advice to employers on nearly a daily basis on labor and employment law issues, as well as representing employers in labor matters before independent arbitrators.

Mark has taught courses on labor relations at Benedictine University, is a regular speaker on labor issues at the Chicago-Kent School of Law Public Sector Labor Law Forum, and has conducted seminars for management personnel on legal and practical employment relations matters. Mark also served as an Extern with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board handling traditional labor law issues while in law school.

Robb Craddock Related Seminars and Products

Executive Director

University of Illinois

Robb B. Craddock currently serves as Executive Director of Labor and Employee Relations within Illinois Human Resources at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In this role, Mr. Craddock acts as the University’s chief labor relations spokesperson and oversees the administration of 18 collective bargaining agreements covering Civil Service employees and 4 agreements covering Academic employees. He also represents the Chancellor and Provost in grievance proceedings.

Prior to joining the University of Illinois, Mr. Craddock served as Deputy Director of Labor Relations for the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS) from September 2008 to January 2015. In that capacity, he managed labor relations on behalf of the Office of the Governor, representing the largest employer in the State of Illinois. His work involved negotiations with a broad range of labor unions, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Teamsters, and various trade unions.  In 2019, Mr. Craddock returned to CMS in collaboration with the University of Illinois to serve as Chief Labor Relations Negotiator and Executive Branch Labor Relations Advisor. During this tenure, he successfully negotiated a resolution with AFSCME Council 31, concluding a four-year labor dispute. In October 2013, Mr. Craddock accepted the James Baird Leadership Award on behalf of CMS, presented by the Illinois Public Employer Labor Relations Association (IPELRA). This annual award recognizes outstanding leadership and achievement in public sector labor relations in Illinois.

Mr. Craddock is an active member of the National Public Employer Labor Relations Association and serves on the board of IPELRA. He holds a Master of Public Administration with a graduate certificate in Public Sector Labor Relations from the University of Illinois at Springfield, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Western Illinois University

John J. Weathers Related Seminars and Products

Arbitrator-Mediator-Attorney

Weathers ADR LLC

John Weathers is a highly accomplished practitioner with over two decades of experience in labor and employee relations, as a legal advocate for employer and labor union clients negotiating collective bargaining agreements, administering contracts, and resolving disputes and litigation; and also as a third-party neutral providing mediation, facilitation, and process-design services. John is known for leveraging an advanced legal and ethical proficiency, strategic negotiation skills, a strong commitment to neutrality and impartiality, and a keen eye for productive processes and practices to successfully navigate complex issues and relationships, to empower and guide parties to agreements and resolution, and to instruct and train diverse groups in contract administration, negotiations, interest-based processes, and conflict resolution.

• Noted for repeated success in negotiating to completion over seventy (70) collective bargaining agreements as a legal advocate for a public sector employer with tens of thousands of employees and as legal counsel on behalf of a major public sector labor union representing more than ten thousand bargaining unit employees
• Proven track record of effectively representing employer and labor union clients by arbitrating more than seventy-five (75+) cases and reaching favorable settlement agreements in hundreds of other matters prior to hearing
• Recognized for extensive experience mediating hundreds of collective bargaining agreements, grievances, and workplace disputes across a variety of industries in the private, public, and federal sectors
• Demonstrated for achievements in designing and facilitating processes in high-impact, multi-party public policy and negotiated rulemaking matters for governments, agencies, and a variety of stakeholders