The boss says one thing.

The employee says another.

Someone gets fired.

In thousands of labor-management disputes every year, a neutral third party steps in to resolve an impasse through arbitration -- a process that is usually faster and less expensive than legal action.

Step by practical step, co-authors Rocco Scanza and Jay Grenig outline this historically significant form of conflict resolution in "Fundamentals of Labor Arbitration," published by the American Arbitration Association and the ILR School's Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution.

Scanza is executive director of the institute; Grenig is a professor at the Marquette University Law School and an instructor at the Scheinman Institute.

More than 113,000 cases were filed in 2009 with the American Arbitration Association, which has 29 offices in the United States, Mexico and Singapore.

In addition to labor-management conflicts, cases handled by the not-for-profit organization include commercial, construction, employment, insurance, international and claims program disputes.

The book will serve as a primer for practitioners, labor and management professionals, and new arbitrators, Scanza said.

A "Fundamentals of Labor Arbitration" book-signing event will be held Dec. 16 in the American Arbitration Association's Manhattan headquarters. Information: ilrcr@cornell.edu.

Mary Catt is the ILR School's staff writer.