NTEU Sues Agency Refusing to Assign Arbitrators to Cases Involving Excluded Agencies
Posted On: May 26, 2026
NTEU Sues Agency Refusing to Assign Arbitrators to Cases Involving Excluded Agencies
NTEU and three other unions have sued the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The FMCS issued a directive saying that it will not provide potential arbitrators for labor disputes—if the agency involved in the dispute is covered by the Exclusions Executive Order. That Order eliminates collective bargaining rights for two-thirds of the federal government.
The Exclusions Executive Order is unlawful, as NTEU has been arguing in court. And the FMCS should not adopt a position that embraces the Executive Order and that tries to stop us from arbitrating your cases. Arbitrators have routinely been hearing cases involving agencies that the Exclusions Executive Order covers and ruling for NTEU in those cases.
The unions’ lawsuit aims to get this FMCS directive off the books. Meanwhile, we continue to hold agencies accountable through our grievance-arbitration process.
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