On December 30, 2025, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York vacated a recent Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (“FMCS”) policy that laid off a substantial number of federal mediators and sharply limited when the agency would provide mediation services.

In March 2025, FMCS – the federal agency charged with mediating labor disputes – adopted a policy limiting its mediation services to disputes involving bargaining units of at least 250 employees in the healthcare industry and at least 1,000 employees in most other sectors. The policy also implemented a reduction in force leaving FMCS with only six mediators. FMCS adopted the policy in response to a March 14, 2025 executive order issued by President Trump instructing federal agencies to reduce headcount to the greatest extent possible, an order that was permanently enjoined in November 2025 by a Rhode Island federal court in State of Rhode Island v. Trump.

Approximately one month later, on December 30, Judge Arun Subramanian of the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment in favor of several labor organizations in American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO v. Davis. The plaintiff unions alleged that the FMCS policy disrupted ongoing collective bargaining negotiations and unlawfully restricted access to mediation services. Judge Subramanian first rejected the government’s threshold arguments, holding that the plaintiff unions had standing based on concrete harms such as canceled and delayed...

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