Handling Workplace Conflict: Why Transformative Mediation?

The several articles in this Symposium represent a unique and multifaceted examination of the largest workplace conflict mediation program in the United States-the United States Postal Service's ("Postal Service") REDRESS Tm Program. Begun on a pilot basis in 1994 as part of the settlement of a class-action discrimination lawsuit, REDRESST was subsequently expanded to a nationwide program for mediation of discrimination claims, available to all of the Postal Service's over 800,000 employees. However, it is not only the size of the REDRESSTM Program that makes it a remarkable development in the field of workplace conflict resolution-and the field of mediation generally. Equally significant is the fact that the Postal Service decided to employ a specific model of mediation within the program, called "transformative mediation."