They said he was feigning an embrace of the Mitchell report while rejecting both the key recommendation -- a settlement freeze -- and the spirit of the report, which holds both sides responsible for reducing violence.
Such a panel would hear presentations by the city and the union and then issue a nonbinding recommendation for a settlement.
In mediation, the parties resort to a third person to offer a recommendation for a settlement or to help them to reach a compromise.
After the union declared an impasse, a mediator was appointed; when that failed, the state appointed a fact-finding panel to hear arguments and make a nonbinding recommendation for a settlement.
Union delegates voted yesterday to ask the State Public Employment Relations Board to appoint a three-member fact-finding panel, a group of arbitrators that makes makes nonbinding recommendations for a settlement.
In June of that year, the Bush administration -- spearheaded by CIA director George Tenet -- began pushing for a ceasefire from the Palestinian side, as called for in the Mitchell Commission Report, but without including concomitant recommendations for a settlement freeze and other Israeli responsibilities.
The fact-finder can recommend terms for a settlement, but the recommendation is not binding.
An emergency board would postpone a strike by an additional 60 days while the three-member panel made a settlement recommendation and federal mediators tried to forge an agreement.
Under the law, Northwest's mechanics, who are seeking a wage increase, must stay on the job for 60 days while the three-member emergency board prepares a report and makes a settlement recommendation.
Lu said Friday that despite its recommendation, the agency would prefer to reach a settlement with Chrysler in which owners of the used "lemons" would be compensated.
The unions can reject the board's recommendation and then strike but Congress also has the authority to impose a settlement.
