Posts tagged government arbitrators
Arbitrator Rules for Union on Probationary Employee Firings
July 30, 2026 // An arbitrator has ruled in favor of the NTEU union in a grievance over firings of some 3,500 probationary employees at HHS last year, agreeing that they were a “reduction in force masquerading as probationary terminations” and not meeting the employee protections and other requirements of a RIF.
Commentary: Faster Contracts, Bigger Problems
July 7, 2026 // TThe FLCA isn’t just about wages and hours. Some argue that it is also a backdoor for big unions to impose radical left ideology into the workplace. The Wall Street Journal editorial board recently warned, “Unions, allied with Democrats, have long supported a progressive agenda that includes collective bargaining for abortion coverage and transgender healthcare.” Under the FLCA, government arbitrators could force provisions for things like abortion coverage, gender-affirming care, and DEI mandates into a contract and lock them in for two years. Employers and workers alike would have little recourse. Not only is this bill flawed, but it also skipped the normal legislative process.
LTE: Unions Place Culture Wars Front and Center
June 22, 2026 // Instead of focusing solely on issues like wages and benefits, union representatives demanded that the company allow different pronoun pins. They also demanded that the company cover abortion and gender-affirming care in its health plans, which the company already did. I expected the union to focus on more important issues. In 2025 the union demanded the store become an Immigration and Customs Enforcement sanctuary. If the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which the U.S. House recently passed, was the law of land, government arbitrators could look at other union contracts or union demands like those I saw and force them on workers at other companies.
Why Would Any Republican Support Forced Unionism?
June 9, 2026 // What makes this even more shocking is that President Trump has proposed completely eliminating the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which the bill would supercharge. The president understands that contracts imposed by government bureaucrats are more likely to be based on political than economic logic, and that negotiations are better left to the private parties. Ironically, government-imposed contracts are likely to harm the workers whose union bosses are pushing this idea. Because when economics don’t add up, it’s the workers who pay in layoffs, reduced hours and the diversion of capital investments that would have raised productivity. This risks broader economic disruption by creating a threat perception that, at any time, a single union request could trigger a government-enforced contract clock. That perception would tend to chill hiring and investing, especially by smaller businesses that can’t afford to fight out an arbitration battle.