The Labor-Management Dispute Settlement Institute has been devoted to education exclusively in the field of labor relations since 1975.
LMDSI was founded as a non-profit Michigan corporation by M. David Keefe, an arbitrator and member of the National Academy of Arbitrators, who in his career heard some 6,000 cases.
Before becoming an Arbitrator, David served as a union official and organizer for the AFL, a Commissioner (mediator) with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and Manager of Industrial Relations for Aurora Gasoline (Marathon Oil). He has negotiated hundreds, perhaps thousands, of labor agreements on both sides of the bargaining table. David taught labor relations for fifteen years at Wayne State University and for ten years at the University of Detroit.
The unique approach to education undertaken by LMDSI through David’s vision was the utilization of videotaped presentations to capture the best advice from the best practitioners of labor relations. The assembly of LMDSI’s extensive faculty of first-rate, nationally recognized experts is a testament to the receptivity of David’s concept in the labor relations profession.
Because their wisdom was captured on videotape, the LMDSI faculty remains forever available to anyone wishing to learn how to successfully conduct labor relations.
LMDSI conducted countless seminars throughout America, attended by many thousands of individuals, in which video presentations were seamlessly integrated with live, on site, presenters. This approach was also successfully used by LMDSI in presenting numerous private seminars for both managements and unions.
To accomplish production of the Videotape Library, LMDSI utilized only union shop facilities, including the television studios of the University of Detroit and the LMDSI in-house production facility, Video One, Inc.
The mission of the Institute has always been to offer to a diverse audience quality labor relations education that can make a difference. This mission has been well served through both public and private labor relations seminars conducted directly by LMDSI.
With the untimely death of David in 1988, his son, Peter, a lawyer who has been intimately involved with LMDSI since its inception, formed Labor Relations Educational Programs, LLC in order to make available, under the LMDSI moniker, the LMDSI Videotape Library and the books written by David as a memorial to his life-long dedication to labor relations education.
With the videos and books utilized and distributed by LMDSI now available for the first time in digital formats, rechristened the LMDSI Media Library, it is Peter’s sincere wish that the sage wisdom contained in the LMDSI Media Library will offer solutions to both managements and unions for forming a work environment that is harmonious, profitable, and unassailable in today's climate of world market competition.