# National Mediation Board The **National Mediation Board** is the small independent federal agency that administers the [[Railway Labor Act]]. It mediates contract disputes and runs union-representation elections in the railroad and airline industries, the two sectors carved out of the [[NLRB]]'s jurisdiction. On **January 14, 2026** it ruled that [[SpaceX]] falls under the Railway Labor Act, reasoning that "space transport includes air travel." That took SpaceX out of the NLRB's reach and ended the board's case over eight fired engineers. See [[SpaceX v. NLRB]]. > [!note] Stub — expand with > Board membership and partisan balance at the time of the SpaceX ruling · the precedent's reach to other launch companies · whether its members' removal protections survive [[Trump v. Slaughter]]. ## See Also - [[Railway Labor Act]] · [[NLRB]] · [[Independent Regulatory Commissions Hub]] - [[SpaceX v. NLRB]] · [[Musk Companies Labor Litigation]]