On a recent Southwest Airlines flight from Dallas to Oklahoma City, I happened to meet someone who is called into the situation only if there is a dispute between a labor union and management that cannot be resolved by the parties themselves. Yes, he belongs to an elite group of men and women in the US, who are called into play only when labor arbitration is required. Arbitration in the U. S. is voluntary in the private sector and mandated in the federal sector, but the parties don't need to go through the federal government and often don't to decide on an arbitrator.

Further, at age 65, he too definitely reinvented himself from a University of Texas Graduate Business School professor to what he is today, a US labor arbitrator-mediator. After nearly 30 years at the University of Texas at Austin, I. B. "Beber" Helburn went from teaching Labor Relations, HR Management, Negotiation and Arbitration, with a part-time job of serving in his current capacity, to now practicing what he had preached full-time.

Of course, since Beber Helburn had begun his University of Texas at Austin Business School stint in January, 1968, UT Austin has steadily risen in prominence to what it has become today. Modestly, Helburn doesn’t choose to take any particular credit for the school’s current reputation, although in all honesty being able to take classes from such a professor would be exciting for any student.

After completing his Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin Industrial Relations Institute, with a major in Industrial Relations, Dr. Helburn principally served as a university professor, but he also briefly functioned as a consultant to the Committee on Wages and Employment to the House of Representatives, State of Texas for approximately one year (which report led to the passage of the first state minimum wage law). Helburn has been listed on the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, labor arbitration panel from 1972 until the present, the labor panel of the American Arbitration Association since 1974 and the labor panel of the National Mediation Board since 1992.

Helburn has been involved with Arbitration panels over the years, which have included all of the following companies: AT&T and the Communications Workers of America; Continental Airlines and the International Association of Machinists (Flight Attendants); Continental Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA); Federal Express Corporation and ALPA; GAF Corporation and PACE International Union; Internal Revenue Service and the National Treasury Employees Union; International Paper Company and PACE plus the IBEW; Lone Star Steel and the United Steelworkers of America; Lucent Technologies and the Communications Workers of America; Major League Baseball and the Major League Players Association (Salary); Southwest Airlines and the International Association of Machinists (Reservation Agents); Southwest Airlines and TWU Local 555 (Ramp Personnel); U. S. Customs Service and the National Treasury Employees Union; U. S. Postal Service and the American Postal Workers Union, National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association; and the Veterans Administration Medical Center and the AFGE Local 1633.

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