Isael Hermosillo, a mediator negotiating labor contracts for California’s grocers, got bad news in the early hours of March 26, before he even had a chance to drop off his children at school near his Alhambra home.
He got a text from his supervisor asking that he cancel work and jump onto a Zoom call by 9 a.m. That’s when Hermosillo learned that his job and much of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service agency were terminated.
“That was my last day,” said the 13-year agency veteran. “Going from 130 mediators to five was not within the spectrum of what I thought was going to happen. I thought the number of mediators was going to be cut, but I did not think that the agency would be, per se, deleted.”
The nearly 80-year-old FMCS was dismantled by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which was set up by the Trump administration to cut spending and jobs. DOGE has slashed nearly 300,000 federal jobs at 27 agencies in two months, according to the staffing firm Challenger.
The timing of Hermosillo’s termination came not long after the labor contract with the grocery chains expired March 2 for Southern California’s 55,000 unionized workers.
See also: Stater Bros. lays off store clerks, a first for the 89-year-old chain
Negotiations at the Buena Park offices of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324 were ongoing with lawyers from Albertsons Cos., which also owns Vons and Pavilions, and Ralphs, the largest supermarket unit of Kroger Co.
A handful of sessions were held separately with San Bernardino-based Stater Bros. Markets.
“These aren’t the B-team lawyers. These are the A-team lawyers,” said Hermosillo, who earned his law degree from Syracuse University College of Law, where Joe Biden also graduated in 1968. “The agreement that eventually gets ironed out is used by supermarkets across the country as a template.”
In total, seven UFCW local unions from Santa Barbara to San Diego are working on new three-year UFCW labor contracts with several supermarket chains.
Those unionized supermarkets include, Albertsons, Ralphs, Stater, Encino-based Gelson’s Markets and Super A Foods, a family-owned supermarket chain based in Commerce that caters to Latino and Asian shoppers in the Los Angeles area. Gelson’s and Super A Foods have historically gone along with the labor contracts negotiated by Albertsons, Ralphs and Stater.
Andrea Zinder, UFCW Local 324 president, said that Hermosillo’s firing is part of the Trump administration’s effort to undermine the collective bargaining process.
To keep talks moving forward, the UFCW locals in Southern California and the supermarket chains are paying Hermosillo a “per diem” wage to continue with the negotiations.
Depending on how the talks progress, a strike authorization vote by the UFCW could happen in “late May or early June” if “things don’t really change and move in a good direction,” said Zinder, adding that the two sides remain far apart on wages, benefits and job classifications.
Spokespersons for the larger supermarket chains were not immediately available for comment on the status of the discussions or Hermosillo’s new role.
Jim Amen, president of Super A Foods, said he was aware of Hermosillo’s hiring but that he’s more concerned about the slow pace of the talks. “I don’t like how they do this dance after the contracts expired,” Amen said. “They haven’t even talked economics yet, but they do this every time.”
William Resh, associate professor of public policy and management with the USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, said the termination of Hermosillo and the dismantling of the federal agency isn’t good for anyone. “Mediators are meant to be kind of impartial arbitrators.”
The loss of an FMCS arbitrator could create inefficiencies in the market,” Resh said.
He cited “court shopping” by either side as one likely outcome, where either unions or an employer could search for favorable court venues to get a ruling, or cause disputes to drag on longer than they should.
“These fights could become longer and more contentious,” he said.
What’s next?
On Monday, April 14, UFCW joined a dozen major unions to file a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from shutting down the federal agency. The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court said that efforts to dismantle FMCS violate Congress’ constitutional powers to create or dissolve such agencies.
Though not a party to the lawsuit, the 44-year-old Hermosillo said that hollowing out FMCS is a “clear violation” of the U.S. Constitution.
“I hope one day the matter goes in front of the Supreme Court, and there will be some decisions that move things the other way, because what this administration is doing — not only to this agency, but several others — is impairing it so much that it would literally take generations to repair.”
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