# Federal Labor Relations Authority The **Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA)** is the independent agency that runs the labor-relations system for the federal workforce. It is the public-sector counterpart of the [[NLRB]]. Title VII of the [[Civil Service Reform Act of 1978]] created it, and it opened on **Jan 1, 1979**. It has three parts: - **The Authority:** three members serving staggered five-year terms, no more than two from one party. It decides which employees form bargaining units, rules on unfair labor practice cases, and reviews arbitration awards. - **The General Counsel:** investigates and prosecutes unfair labor practice charges. - **The Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP):** resolves bargaining deadlocks, and can impose contract terms. ## How the system was emptied in 2025–26 The second Trump administration did not abolish the FLRA. It used a 1978 carve-out to shrink the share of the workforce the FLRA covers, and replaced the people who run it. **The exclusions.** 5 U.S.C. § 7103(b)(1) lets the President exclude agencies whose "primary function" is national security work. Two orders used it: - **[[Executive Order 14251]] (Mar 27, 2025)** excluded agencies covering about **two-thirds of the federal workforce**. - **[[Executive Order 14343]] (Aug 28, 2025)** added units at NASA, the National Weather Service, NOAA's satellite service, the Patent Office, the International Trade Administration, USAGM and Bureau of Reclamation hydropower units. **The litigation.** The unions won early and lost on appeal: - **NTEU v. Trump (D.C. Cir.):** Judge Friedman's injunction (April 2025) was stayed 2–1 in May 2025. The appeal was argued in December 2025 and is undecided as of late September 2026. - **AFGE v. Trump (9th Cir.):** Judge Donato's injunction (June 2025) was stayed in August 2025 and **vacated on Feb 26, 2026**. Rehearing en banc was denied June 17, 2026. - **[[OPM]] guidance (Feb 12, 2026):** OPM under [[Scott Kupor]] told covered agencies to "proceed to terminate or modify collective bargaining agreements." **The people.** - **Feb 10, 2025.** Trump removed Chair **Susan Tsui Grundmann**, a Biden-appointed Democrat, by email. Judge Sooknanan reinstated her in March 2025, but the D.C. Circuit stayed that order in July. Grundmann then moved to dismiss her own appeal, which ended as moot in February 2026, months before **[[Trump v. Slaughter]]** (June 29, 2026) overruled *Humphrey's Executor* for the FTC. That decision's [[Removal Power]] logic reaches multimember agencies like the FLRA. - **The Authority today:** Chair **Colleen Duffy Kiko** (designated Feb 11, 2025), **Anne Wagner**, and **Charles Arrington** (confirmed Dec 18, 2025, sworn in Jan 6, 2026). That is a 2–1 Republican majority. - **General Counsel:** **Charlton Allen** was sworn in Aug 24, 2026. He is the first Senate-confirmed FLRA General Counsel since 2017. - **FSIP:** eight new members were appointed July 9, 2026, chaired by Mark Carter. ## The congressional response The **Protect America's Workforce Act** (H.R. 2550), which would void the exclusion orders, got 218 discharge-petition signatures and **passed the House 231–195 on Dec 11, 2025**. Senate action has not been confirmed. ## Why it matters The FLRA case shows the second term's method in its cleanest form. A national-security exception meant for intelligence and investigative work was stretched to cover weather forecasters and patent examiners. The adjudicator's independence fell to the removal-power campaign. Each step was legal enough to survive a stay motion. See [[Federal Workforce Structure Tree]] and [[Schedule F]]. ## See Also - [[Federal Workforce Structure Tree]] · [[Civil Service Reform Act of 1978]] · [[Merit Systems Protection Board]] - [[Executive Order 14251]] · [[Executive Order 14343]] · [[OPM]] · [[Scott Kupor]] · [[AFGE]] - [[Removal Power]] · [[Trump v. Slaughter]] · [[Unitary Executive Theory]] · [[Schedule F]] · [[NLRB]]