[Excerpt] The NYCCBL was preceded by a tumultuous period of employee organization and labor unrest that culminated in 1965, when the City’s Welfare Department workers held a month-long strike. During that strike, unions were fined, union officials were arrested and jailed, and employees received termination notices. The 1965 strike, its negotiated resolution, and the support of Mayors Robert F. Wagner and John V. Lindsay, helped to lay the groundwork for a structure and procedure to govern public sector collective bargaining. The hard work and commitment of neutrals and representatives of labor and management resulted in the Tripartite Agreement, which was to later become the NYCCBL. The Office of Collective Bargaining was also born out of those challenging times. This 50-year-old municipal law was developed through successful collective bargaining and has been instrumental in preserving peaceful and productive labor relations between the City and its unions. The negotiation process that resulted in the Tripartite Agreement is permanently reflected in the Board of Collective Bargaining’s unique tripartite structure and the agency’s highly effective impartial dispute resolution mechanisms. Over the past five decades, the agency has effectively promoted and encouraged collective bargaining, and on those occasions when mutual resolution has not been possible, its dispute resolution procedures have provided a way to labor peace.