FMCS Cuts Staff Dramatically. Following through on President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” which we recently examined here at the Buzz, this week, the administration all but shut down the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). FMCS is an independent agency established by the U.S. Congress in the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 “to prevent or minimize interruptions of the free flow of commerce growing out of labor disputes, to assist parties to labor disputes in industries affecting commerce to settle such disputes through conciliation and mediation.” FMCS will reportedly retain approximately 15 employees—down from the 220 employees it maintained in 2024.

Personnel News. There were significant developments this week on the agency personnel front as President Trump seeks to install his political appointees at executive branch agencies. For example:

• NLRB. Today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 2–1 decision, ruled that President Trump was permitted to remove Gwynne Wilcox, a President Biden–appointed member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), whose five-year term expires on August 27, 2028. A lower-court judge had issued a decision preventing the president from removing Wilcox without cause, but today’s appellate court ruling lifts the injunction while the litigation proceeds. The case will likely reach the Supreme Court of the United States.
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