DOGE layoffs of federal mediators leave grocery chain talks and other labor disputes in limbo

In late March, Isael Hermosillo received an ominous message from his supervisor around 7 a.m. ordering him to cancel all his meetings scheduled that day.

Hermosillo rushed to notify several locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers union as well as attorneys for Albertsons and Kroger that he would not be able to attend a session in Buena Park later that morning — the third consecutive meeting set to be held that week for labor talks between major Southern California grocery chains and unions representing their workers.

Two hours later, Hermosillo found himself on a video conference call where he was informed by his supervisor that he would be put on a monthlong paid administrative leave, and that his job would be terminated.

Hermosillo is among 130 federal mediators who were fired on March 26 after the Trump administration’s cost-cutting team, called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), effectively shuttered a 79-year-old federal agency that mediates labor disputes.

The terminations at the agency, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, have fueled concern among unions and employers alike about who will step in to help ease labor conflicts in Southern California and beyond.

Though relatively small and obscure, the agency plays a vital role in helping to settle disputes so as to avoid labor unrest that can disrupt the free flow of commerce, according to former federal mediators and experts.

Besides brokering negotiations for private employers, the mediators handle worker grievances; train joint labor-management committees; appoint arbitrators if a dispute cannot be resolved; and assist with negotiation impasses in the federal sector. These services are offered at little to no cost.

“We are the ones that come in quietly when people are having issues or contract negotiations aren’t working and are falling apart,” Hermosillo said. “We go in and assist, and then move on to the next group that may need our assistance. I think that’s a lot of why the American people don’t know who we are and what we do.”

Hermosillo works out of the agency’s Los Angeles office in Glendale, staffed by five mediators and a supervisor.

His termination caught employers and unions off guard — coming weeks after the labor contracts covering some 55,000 unionized grocery workers in California had expired — and threw a wrench in negotiations, said Kathy Finn, president of UFCW Local 770.

Finn said that because Hermosillo has worked on negotiations for many years, on multiple cycles since around 2017, both sides trust him and they engage him very early on in the process — which has helped to avert strikes.

“We always have difficult negotiations with these companies. … We’ve gotten very close to going on strike many times, ending or reaching a deal minutes or hours before a deadline — or after,” Finn said. “The help Isael has provided has been very valuable.”

UFCW Local 770 is among seven locals representing workers from San Diego to Santa Barbara in labor talks with Albertsons, parent owner of the Vons and Pavilions chains, and Kroger, which owns Ralphs.

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