Bonnie Castrey Starts Labor Consulting Sevice

After 10 years as a federal mediator, Bonnie P. Castrey has started her own private arbitration and labor consulting service. Castrey, 43, who gained renown last year by helping to settle the 22-day Disneyland strike, said she resigned from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service July 22 and now is working out of her Huntington Beach home.

So far, Castrey said, she has been admitted to state and federal arbitration panels and has an application pending with the American Arbitration Assn.

As a mediator, Castrey said she functioned as a catalyst to bring warring parties together when labor contracts were up for renegotiation. She had no authority, however, to require labor or management to agree to any particular compromise package.

But in binding arbitrations, Castrey said, she will be called upon to devise compromises regarding wages, hours and working conditions. Labor and management negotiators agree upon entering a binding arbitration to insert the arbitrator’s compromises into their contract proposals. She said she will also arbitrate interpretive questions that arise during the life of the contracts.

Castrey said that, in addition to arbitration, she will conduct educational programs on labor relations and consult with companies on ways to improve their internal problem solving.