Ryan Johnson, Arbitrator
Ryan S. Johnson is a full-time labor arbitrator based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and available for appointment nationwide. He serves on the roster of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and conducts both in-person and virtual hearings. His background combines experience in labor arbitration and labor relations with university teaching and research in economics.
Experience and Qualifications
Arbitration Experience
Ryan has issued decisions and awards in discipline and discharge, contract interpretation, and procedural and substantive arbitrability matters. His work has included disputes involving classification seniority, shift bidding, grievance procedures, just cause, workplace rules, and evidentiary issues.
His experience as an arbitrator and through his apprenticeship includes federal, local-government, and private-sector labor disputes, with matters involving law enforcement, corrections, utilities, manufacturing, and public transit. He also has experience in interest arbitration.
Academic Credentials
Ryan earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Arizona in 2002, following an M.A. in Economics in 2001. He earned his B.A. in Economics from Washington State University in 1998.
His research has addressed labor economics, discrimination and segregation, and the effects of public policy on labor markets. His published work includes research in the Journal of Law and Economics and a contribution to the Encyclopedia of Black Migration.
Professional Training and Affiliations
Ryan serves on the roster of arbitrators maintained by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. In October 2020, he completed the agency’s Becoming a Labor Arbitrator training.
He participates in the Pacific Northwest Salon, which is affiliated with the National Academy of Arbitrators.
Apprenticeship in Labor Arbitration
From 2014 through 2021, Ryan apprenticed with Arbitrator Mario F. Bognanno, Professor Emeritus and a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators. With the pre-hearing approval of the parties, he attended hearings, assisted with legal and factual research, and prepared full-length mock arbitration awards.
These matters included discipline and discharge, arbitrability, overtime, wages, vacation scheduling, and premium pay. He also attended an interest-arbitration hearing and prepared a full-length mock award.
University Teaching
Since 2002, Ryan has taught economics at the university level. His teaching has included labor economics, labor relations, labor and public policy, and law and economics. He taught Labor and Labor Relations at Southern Virginia University and has held teaching appointments in the University of Arizona’s Department of Economics since 2015.
He continues to teach in the Online MBA and Executive MBA programs at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. His earlier work included serving as Mario F. Bognanno’s teaching assistant in a labor-arbitration course in 2000–2001.
Approach to Arbitration
Ryan approaches each appointment with an understanding that his authority derives from the parties’ agreement. He evaluates the evidence, considers competing explanations and the parties’ arguments, and interprets and applies the agreement to the dispute submitted.
He conducts organized, respectful proceedings in which each party has a full and fair opportunity to present its case. His written awards explain how the parties’ agreement applies to the facts established in the record.
Why Labor Arbitration?
Ryan has long been drawn to labor arbitration because it combines careful legal and contractual analysis with practical problem solving. Collective bargaining agreements establish the framework for the ongoing relationship between employers and unions, and arbitration plays an essential role in interpreting those agreements fairly and consistently. Serving as a neutral decision maker is both a significant responsibility and a privilege.
Ryan approaches each appointment with the understanding that the parties have entrusted the arbitrator with resolving an important dispute. He is committed to maintaining the highest standards of impartiality, professionalism, and integrity while providing the parties with a hearing that is fair, orderly, and efficient and a decision that is carefully reasoned and firmly grounded in the record.