Isael Hermosillo, a mediator who negotiated labor contracts for California supermarkets, received bad news in the early hours of March 26, before he had the opportunity to leave his children at school near his home in Alhambra.
He received a text message from his supervisor asking him to cancel the work and jump to a zoom call before 9 in the morning, when Hermosillo learned that work and the Federal Agency for Mediation and Conciliation Services was over.
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“That was my last day,” said the veteran of the 13 -year -old agency. “Going from 130 mediators to five was not within the spectrum of what I thought it happened. I thought the number of mediators was going to be reduced, but I did not think that the agency would be, per se.”
The almost 80 -year FMCS was dismantled by the Government Efficiency Department of billionaire Elon Musk, or Doge, which was created by the Trump administration to reduce spending and jobs. Dege has reduced almost 300,000 federal jobs in 27 agencies in two months, according to the Personal Challenger.
The moment of the completion of Hermosillo occurred not long after the employment contract with the supermarket chains expired on March 2 for the 55,000 unionized workers in southern California.
The negotiations in the good park offices of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324 were taking into account lawyers from Albertsons Cos.
A handful of sessions were heroes separately with the Stater Bros. markets based in San Bernardino.
“These are not team lawyers. These are the lawyers of the team A,” said Hermosillo, who obtained his law enforcement of the Law Faculty of the University of Syracuse, where Joe Biden also graduated in 1968. “The agreement that Irontred is possible as the irontrado of Usross as its workforce.”
In total, seven local UFCW unions of Santa Barbara to San Diego are working on new three -year UFCW labor contracts with several supermarket chains.
These unionized supermarkets include Albertsons, Ralphs, Stater, Gelson’s Markets and Super A Foods, based in Encino, a chain of family property supermarkets based in the commerce that serves Latin and Asian buyers in the Los Angeles area. Historically, Gelson’s and Super A Foods have gone together with the labor contracts negotiated by Albertsons, Ralphs and Stater.
Andrea Zinder, president of UFCW Local 324, said that the dismissal of Hermosillo is part of the Trump administration effort to undermine the collective bargaining process.
To keep the conversations in the future, UFCW’s locals in southern California and supermarket chains are paying Hermosillo a “period” salary to continue negotiations.
Depending on how conversations progress, an UFCW strike authorization vote could occur at the end of May or early June “if” things really do not change and move in a good direction, “said Zinder, Benfefits Remain.
The spokesmen of the largest supermarket chains were not immediately without comments on the state of the discussions or the new role of Hermosillo.
Jim Amen, president of Super to Foods, said he was aware of the hiring of Hermosillo, but is more concerned with the slow rhythm of the conversations. “I don’t like how they do this dance after the contracts expired,” said Amen. “Portan” spoke of economics yet, but they do it every time. “
William Resh, associate professor of public policies and administration at the Sol Price Public Public Policies School of the USC, said that the termination of Hermosillo and the dismantling of the federal agency is not good for anyone. “The mediators are meean to be children’s or impartial referees.”
The loss of an FMCS referee could create inefficiencies in the market, “said Resh.
He cited “judicial purchases” on both sides as a probable result, where unions or an employer could look for favorable courts to obtain a ruling, or make disputes crawl more time than the shoulder.
“These fights could become longer and more controversial,” he said.
What follows?
On Monday, April 14, UFCW joined the main box unions to submit a demand that seeks to block the Trump administration to close the Federal Agency. The lawsuit filed in the Federal Court of Manhattan said that efforts to dismantle the FMC violate the constitutional powers of Congress to create or dissolve these agencies.
He thought it was not a part of the demand, Hermosillo, 44, said that Empty FMCS is a “clear violation” of the United States Constitution.
“I hope that one day the matter will face the Supreme Court, and there will be some decisions that move to the other side, because what this administration is doing, not only for this agency, but of several ethers, is affecting it is it is.”
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