Grievance arbitration: a private or public justice system?

From its origins as a private law mechanism, grievance arbitration has increasingly gone public, yet essentially maintaining its private character with regard to its operations. This evolution has come about through the broadening of the grievance arbitrator's scope of action in areas that were the prerogative of courts of general jurisdiction. This raises a triumvirate of questions involving the independence, competency and accessibility of arbitrators as regards remuneration and appreciation of their competency by parties involved. With the rejection of the creation of a national arbitration commission, there should be ways and means for maintaining in so far as possible the elements found in current practice while guaranteeing at best the independence and professional competency of arbitrators, especially by the implementation of a means for certifying arbitrators and the rational distribution of case loads.