Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service FMCS

The Labor Department's Conciliation Service had mediated labor disputes since 1913. After a wave of postwar strikes, the Taft-Hartley Act, enacted over President Truman's veto on June 23, 1947, made mediation an independent function and created the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. It is led by a Director appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

FMCS mediators help employers and unions in private industry, the public sector, and the federal government reach collective bargaining agreements, typically entering when talks stall or a strike looms. Federal law requires parties to notify FMCS before a contract expires. Mediators have no power to impose terms and work by keeping the sides talking and proposing compromises. The agency has helped resolve major disputes in sectors such as ports, airlines, health care, entertainment, and sports, and it also offers grievance mediation, training, and lists of private arbitrators.

On March 14, 2025, an executive order directed FMCS to be cut to its legal minimum, and the agency soon reduced its staff of mediators from about two hundred to a few dozen. States and labor groups sued, and a federal court ordered the cuts reversed while the case proceeded. Supporters of the order said private parties could hire their own mediators, while employers and unions alike warned that losing free, neutral federal mediation would mean more and longer strikes.