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Introduction:
Community Relations Service Mediator Ozell Sutton describes the difference between "street mediation" and "table mediation" and how he got--and kept people involved in each in a very hostile employment dispute.
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This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).
Getting and Keeping People Involved in Mediation
Ozell Sutton
Former CRS Mediator, Atlanta Office
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[Full Interview]
With street mediation, you're fighting and giving forth to prevent violence, reduce tension to
the point where you can do the other [table mediation]. Hopefully, either you can come up with terms that are
acceptable to both sides that will ultimately resolve the problem, or you can get them to
become sane enough to stop the violence. So that's what you're trying to do. Ultimately, you
want to get them to the point where they can sit down [at a table and talk].
As a mediator, even when it comes to table mediation, the
beginning climate is so hostile that you're not going to get anything done the first few times,
and you know that. I remember right here in this room, I was mediating a situation where the
black police were charging discrimination in hiring, assignment, promotion, the whole bag.
After Jackson was elected, he started to try to correct some of this and the white police filed a
reverse discrimination suit and it had gone on for four or five years. Within the courts, the
whole promotion process was tied down, the employment process was tied down, they were
not hiring new police officers because they didn't have a system in place except through the
courts. It had gone on for four or five years. The judge called me and said, "I want you to mediate this case and I shall tell the
attorneys on both sides that I'm assigning this case to mediation. I'm assigning you to
mediate." So I did.
One team was represented by the black officers and their attorneys, and
the other team was represented by white officers and their attorneys. We were right here in
this room and that conference room over there. Things were so hot in
the mediation and so volatile, that I decided to call a caucus right there. That's one of the
techniques, caucus. I brought the black police officers here, and whites in the conference
room. I assigned two staff members to the conference room and I took the black officers,
because that's where the interest comes from and they were threatening to walk out. I walked
up to the door and blocked the door. If anybody goes out of this room, he'll have to go over
me. I know you're police officers and you really can go over me, but I don't think you want to
do that. And that's what you're going to have to do. Nobody's going out of this room until we
have at least agreed that you should go out. [And then he convinced them to stay in the process because they knew him, knew he was trustworthy, and would not "sell the interests of the black officers short."]
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