Since 2021, employees at over 530 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize. More than 12,000 workers nationwide now work at unionized Starbucks stores. But currently—years after many of their union elections—not a single one of these workers is covered by a union contract due to stalled negotiations.
Getting to a first contract is always a difficult challenge for a newly-certified union. And now, to make matters worse, one of the best resources available to workers and businesses struggling to reach a first contract—a little-known federal agency called the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS)—was just gutted by the Trump administration. Shuttering the FMCS would be a bad move for all workers, unions, and employers facing contentious labor disputes. It also would run counter to calls from Democrats and Republicans alike to bolster the agency in order to speed up labor negotiations.
The Challenge of the First Contract
The difficulty that workers face in securing a first contract after voting for union representation is one of the most intractable problems in modern labor law. A first contract is a critical step when a union goes from an idea agreed to by workers to a reality that improves their working lives. But too many workers never see these benefits.
A frequently-cited study by Bloomberg Law found that it takes an average of 465 days for workers to get a contract after a successful vote to unionize. There is bipartisan acknowledgment—reflected in identical proposals included in both the Democratic-led PRO Act and the Republican-led Faster Labor Contracts Act—that this is unacceptably long, and that federal law should provide a pathway to facilitate good faith bargaining and timely first contract agreements.
In the absence of needed change to our labor laws, one of the only tools that workers have available to help facilitate a first contract is the mediation process. (Indeed, Starbucks and Starbucks Workers United recently called in a mediator to try to put their talks on a more productive path forward.) In first contract mediation, a neutral third party comes in to help facilitate the bargaining process between parties that do not have a mature bargaining relationship.
While mediation services can be obtained from a variety of sources, one of the best resources available to workers and businesses struggling to reach a first contract is the FMCS. The FMCS is a small independent agency that provides dispute resolution services, training, and other programs to help workers, unions, and employers foster collaborative labor management relationships. Created by an act of Congress in 1947, the FMCS participates in thousands of mediations each year, all to bring negotiations and labor disputes to a peaceful resolution so that workers and companies can go back to doing what they do best. The benefits of the agency’s work have been widely recognized, to the point where its role has been expanded over the years by Congress to encompass mediation services in other sectors—such as negotiated rulemaking for government agencies—in addition to labor mediation and arbitration.
FMCS Under Attack
Like many federal agencies, the FMCS is now being targeted by the Trump administration. In an executive order issued on March 14, President Trump directed that the functions of the FMCS “shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” and that even when the agency’s functions are specifically required by law, the agency must “reduce the performance of [these] statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.” This week it was announced that almost the entire workforce will be terminated.
While the Trump administration’s desire to roll back regulations is well-known, its deregulatory zeal—in this particular case—is misdirected. The FMCS is not a regulatory or enforcement agency. It’s a neutral entity that parties come to voluntarily to help them resolve disputes. And it’s hardly a bloated bureaucracy: the agency had around 200 employees nationwide at the end of 2023, and that number has fallen since.
The FMCS has been a perennial favorite target of the right wing, which has recently revived years-old attacks on the management and integrity of the agency, largely based on allegations levied against political appointees who have long since departed the agency. Rather than engaging in constructive dialogue with agency leaders about the substantial reforms that have been implemented at the FMCS in recent years, these critics pushed for the agency to be entirely eliminated, with no regard for the public interest, and especially small businesses and unions that rely on the agency’s services.
The Mission of the Labor Peacemakers
What these critics—who claim to support government efficiency—fail to acknowledge is that the FMCS is an agency that provides a lot of bang for the buck. The purpose of the FMCS is to promote harmonious labor relations and minimize economic unrest resulting from prolonged labor disputes that can arise in a variety of contexts, from contract negotiations to disagreements about how to interpret existing labor contracts. For a relatively modest federal budget allocation, the agency helps prevent strikes, lockouts, and other labor disruptions that can be devastating for workers and much more costly to the nation’s economy. The FMCS provides completely free, completely voluntary contract mediation services to parties engaged in negotiations, making the agency particularly valuable for small business and small unions that cannot necessarily afford to hire private mediation services.
The FMCS provides completely free, completely voluntary contract mediation services to parties engaged in negotiations, making the agency particularly valuable for small business and small unions that cannot necessarily afford to hire private mediation services.
In Fiscal Year 2023, the agency participated in almost 2,500 collective bargaining mediations, including many first contract negotiations. For example, FMCS helped workers get a first contract at the first unionized Apple store in Towson, Maryland. The store voted to unionize in June of 2022 but still had not reached a first contract when FMCS joined the talks in February of 2024. Five months later, the store and the union had a tentative agreement that was subsequently ratified by the workers.
The agency also provides valuable services to unionized workplaces that already have existing collective bargaining agreements. When disputes arise under these agreements, FMCS provides voluntary mediation services that assist parties in resolving their differences before formal arbitration is needed. When arbitration is necessary, FMCS also organizes and provides access to a roster of qualified private arbitrators (who are private sector workers, not federal employees) for parties to existing collective bargaining agreements that need well-qualified and experienced arbitrators to adjudicate grievances arising under their contracts. There is a big demand for this service—in 2023, the agency provided more than 9,000 panels of arbitrators and appointed more than 4,000 individual arbitrators at the request of unionized workplaces.
All of these services minimize labor disputes and help keep workplaces running smoothly. But the president and his administration—while claiming to be “putting America’s workers first”—have just eliminated this invaluable resource.
Meaningful Progress for Workers Requires a Robust FMCS
It’s clear that eliminating access to services that can peacefully resolve labor disputes is a step in the wrong direction. Indeed, lawmakers from both parties previously have been calling for the FMCS to take a far more influential role in the contract negotiation process.
Both the Democrat-let PRO Act and the Republican-led Faster Labor Contracts Act would impose a legal requirement that parties struggling to negotiate a first contract for newly unionized workers must participate in FMCS mediation at either party’s request if they can’t secure a first contract after ninety days of negotiation. This mandatory requirement would presumably significantly increase the demand for the FMCS’s services, as opposed to the current, voluntary system.
In addition, both of these legislative proposals go on to provide that, if mediation fails after thirty days, the FMCS can refer the dispute to a mandatory arbitration process with a three-judge panel of arbitrators empowered to impose a binding contract on the parties. This is an entirely new function for the FMCS that would be tremendously beneficial to effective labor relations. First contract arbitration would ensure that workers who have voted to unionize have a guaranteed path to get the benefits of a union contract, while promoting labor peace by reducing the possibility of strikes or other labor unrest related to contract negotiation failures. But this new system requires a fully functional FMCS that has adequate personnel and resources to administer the program.
At a time when increasing numbers of workers are joining together to seek union representation, it is critically important that workers, unions, and businesses have somewhere to go when labor negotiations turn tense. Seeking help from the FMCS is often the best first step that these parties can take to turn things around and find a more productive path forward. And the agency has the potential to play an even greater role in labor relations if bipartisan proposals for future labor law reform are enacted. In an era where labor and management often struggle to find common ground, both sides should come together to vocally oppose draconian cuts to the FMCS. And any elected official that claims to be pro-worker should support the vital role that this important agency plays in maintaining labor peace.
Tags: small business, labor unions, labor laws, FCMS
Trump’s War on the Labor Peacemakers
Since 2021, employees at over 530 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize. More than 12,000 workers nationwide now work at unionized Starbucks stores. But currently—years after many of their union elections—not a single one of these workers is covered by a union contract due to stalled negotiations.
Getting to a first contract is always a difficult challenge for a newly-certified union. And now, to make matters worse, one of the best resources available to workers and businesses struggling to reach a first contract—a little-known federal agency called the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS)—was just gutted by the Trump administration. Shuttering the FMCS would be a bad move for all workers, unions, and employers facing contentious labor disputes. It also would run counter to calls from Democrats and Republicans alike to bolster the agency in order to speed up labor negotiations.
The Challenge of the First Contract
The difficulty that workers face in securing a first contract after voting for union representation is one of the most intractable problems in modern labor law. A first contract is a critical step when a union goes from an idea agreed to by workers to a reality that improves their working lives. But too many workers never see these benefits.
A frequently-cited study by Bloomberg Law found that it takes an average of 465 days for workers to get a contract after a successful vote to unionize. There is bipartisan acknowledgment—reflected in identical proposals included in both the Democratic-led PRO Act and the Republican-led Faster Labor Contracts Act—that this is unacceptably long, and that federal law should provide a pathway to facilitate good faith bargaining and timely first contract agreements.
In the absence of needed change to our labor laws, one of the only tools that workers have available to help facilitate a first contract is the mediation process. (Indeed, Starbucks and Starbucks Workers United recently called in a mediator to try to put their talks on a more productive path forward.) In first contract mediation, a neutral third party comes in to help facilitate the bargaining process between parties that do not have a mature bargaining relationship.
While mediation services can be obtained from a variety of sources, one of the best resources available to workers and businesses struggling to reach a first contract is the FMCS. The FMCS is a small independent agency that provides dispute resolution services, training, and other programs to help workers, unions, and employers foster collaborative labor management relationships. Created by an act of Congress in 1947, the FMCS participates in thousands of mediations each year, all to bring negotiations and labor disputes to a peaceful resolution so that workers and companies can go back to doing what they do best. The benefits of the agency’s work have been widely recognized, to the point where its role has been expanded over the years by Congress to encompass mediation services in other sectors—such as negotiated rulemaking for government agencies—in addition to labor mediation and arbitration.
FMCS Under Attack
Like many federal agencies, the FMCS is now being targeted by the Trump administration. In an executive order issued on March 14, President Trump directed that the functions of the FMCS “shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” and that even when the agency’s functions are specifically required by law, the agency must “reduce the performance of [these] statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.” This week it was announced that almost the entire workforce will be terminated.
While the Trump administration’s desire to roll back regulations is well-known, its deregulatory zeal—in this particular case—is misdirected. The FMCS is not a regulatory or enforcement agency. It’s a neutral entity that parties come to voluntarily to help them resolve disputes. And it’s hardly a bloated bureaucracy: the agency had around 200 employees nationwide at the end of 2023, and that number has fallen since.
The FMCS has been a perennial favorite target of the right wing, which has recently revived years-old attacks on the management and integrity of the agency, largely based on allegations levied against political appointees who have long since departed the agency. Rather than engaging in constructive dialogue with agency leaders about the substantial reforms that have been implemented at the FMCS in recent years, these critics pushed for the agency to be entirely eliminated, with no regard for the public interest, and especially small businesses and unions that rely on the agency’s services.
The Mission of the Labor Peacemakers
What these critics—who claim to support government efficiency—fail to acknowledge is that the FMCS is an agency that provides a lot of bang for the buck. The purpose of the FMCS is to promote harmonious labor relations and minimize economic unrest resulting from prolonged labor disputes that can arise in a variety of contexts, from contract negotiations to disagreements about how to interpret existing labor contracts. For a relatively modest federal budget allocation, the agency helps prevent strikes, lockouts, and other labor disruptions that can be devastating for workers and much more costly to the nation’s economy. The FMCS provides completely free, completely voluntary contract mediation services to parties engaged in negotiations, making the agency particularly valuable for small business and small unions that cannot necessarily afford to hire private mediation services.
In Fiscal Year 2023, the agency participated in almost 2,500 collective bargaining mediations, including many first contract negotiations. For example, FMCS helped workers get a first contract at the first unionized Apple store in Towson, Maryland. The store voted to unionize in June of 2022 but still had not reached a first contract when FMCS joined the talks in February of 2024. Five months later, the store and the union had a tentative agreement that was subsequently ratified by the workers.
The agency also provides valuable services to unionized workplaces that already have existing collective bargaining agreements. When disputes arise under these agreements, FMCS provides voluntary mediation services that assist parties in resolving their differences before formal arbitration is needed. When arbitration is necessary, FMCS also organizes and provides access to a roster of qualified private arbitrators (who are private sector workers, not federal employees) for parties to existing collective bargaining agreements that need well-qualified and experienced arbitrators to adjudicate grievances arising under their contracts. There is a big demand for this service—in 2023, the agency provided more than 9,000 panels of arbitrators and appointed more than 4,000 individual arbitrators at the request of unionized workplaces.
All of these services minimize labor disputes and help keep workplaces running smoothly. But the president and his administration—while claiming to be “putting America’s workers first”—have just eliminated this invaluable resource.
Meaningful Progress for Workers Requires a Robust FMCS
It’s clear that eliminating access to services that can peacefully resolve labor disputes is a step in the wrong direction. Indeed, lawmakers from both parties previously have been calling for the FMCS to take a far more influential role in the contract negotiation process.
Both the Democrat-let PRO Act and the Republican-led Faster Labor Contracts Act would impose a legal requirement that parties struggling to negotiate a first contract for newly unionized workers must participate in FMCS mediation at either party’s request if they can’t secure a first contract after ninety days of negotiation. This mandatory requirement would presumably significantly increase the demand for the FMCS’s services, as opposed to the current, voluntary system.
In addition, both of these legislative proposals go on to provide that, if mediation fails after thirty days, the FMCS can refer the dispute to a mandatory arbitration process with a three-judge panel of arbitrators empowered to impose a binding contract on the parties. This is an entirely new function for the FMCS that would be tremendously beneficial to effective labor relations. First contract arbitration would ensure that workers who have voted to unionize have a guaranteed path to get the benefits of a union contract, while promoting labor peace by reducing the possibility of strikes or other labor unrest related to contract negotiation failures. But this new system requires a fully functional FMCS that has adequate personnel and resources to administer the program.
At a time when increasing numbers of workers are joining together to seek union representation, it is critically important that workers, unions, and businesses have somewhere to go when labor negotiations turn tense. Seeking help from the FMCS is often the best first step that these parties can take to turn things around and find a more productive path forward. And the agency has the potential to play an even greater role in labor relations if bipartisan proposals for future labor law reform are enacted. In an era where labor and management often struggle to find common ground, both sides should come together to vocally oppose draconian cuts to the FMCS. And any elected official that claims to be pro-worker should support the vital role that this important agency plays in maintaining labor peace.
Tags: small business, labor unions, labor laws, FCMS