Charlie Woodcock is a Senior Labor Relations Consultant with FH Solutions Group.
Charlie has more than 43 years of labor relations and human resources experience, including developing labor strategy, conducting negotiations, restructuring processes and systems, and overseeing service and quality improvement.
He recently retired from an accomplished career at Amtrak, where he headed up the labor relations function, strategy and staff—12 unions and 24 labor contracts—for the past nine years. He also served as chief negotiator for labor contracts at the local and national levels, including major wage and rule agreements under the Railway Labor Act (RLA). In addition, Charlie administered Amtrak’s collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), including contract interpretation, and claim and grievance administration through arbitration.
During his tenure at Amtrak, Charlie also advised and formally trained line officers on labor agreement application, work rule implementation, management rights and the discipline process. He served as a labor relations liaison with outside counsel, consultants and department teams, conducting research and preparing issues for fact-finding panels, interest arbitration forums and government oversight agencies. He also served as an expert and chief witness in special arbitrations. Charlie conducted a wide range of special projects and research, including analyses of arbitration, wage, and contract trends; existing rules applications and improvements; and effective work rules and best practices.
For 20 years, Charlie was the Management Chairman on the Joint Medical Administration Committee (JMAC), a labor-management committee responsible for the oversight of Amtrak’s agreement-covered employee medical plan. He also held other field corporate human resources and labor relations roles at Amtrak, where he led recruiting, labor relations functions in support of division operations, and various field and corporate labor relations initiatives. In addition, he supervised professional staff supporting division and headquarters line and staff operations.
Charlie has been a member various professional organizations, including the Labor and Employee Relations Association (formerly IRRA), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Mercer Labor and Employee Relations Network, Wharton Research Advisory Group and freight/commuter/airline professional labor relations organizations.
Charlie earned his bachelor of science degree in industrial relations from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, which he attended as a Morehead-Cain Scholar.