A federal judge in Massachusetts has halted a Trump administration effort to allow political appointees to have a bigger say in the voting process at federal agencies‘ union elections. The court determined on Monday that the federal law “arbitrary and capricious” for the overhaul of the regulation.
The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has had regional directors and career staff since 1983 who receive requests to conduct union elections or to determine which labor group gets the job. Appeals were then made to the FLRA’s three-member board of political appointees that must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The FLRA, however, had issued an interim rule in March which took the authority of the regional directors away. The new rule meant the agency would be more efficient in handling all representation petitions, as they would be heard as a group by the three-member board.
In April, a coalition of unions for federal workers sued to halt the changes. They said it would drastically slow down the election process to have hundreds of cases directly brought in front of the three-member board and also remove the appeals process in case of any wrong decision
Data Contradicts Agency Claims of Efficiency
U.S. District Judge Denise Caspar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts had agreed with the labor groups. While explaining the rationale behind the rule change, she pointed out that the FLRA’s own numbers debunked the rationale for the rule change.
In 2025, 277 representation petitions were filed by regional directors, and 6 of these petitions were appealed to the higher board. It is obvious that sending all 277 cases straight to the authority of three members is likely to cause a greater burden and delay the processing of cases. Judge Caspar noted that the FLRA failed to offer evidence or explanation that it is not true.
In addition, the judge determined that the FLRA has failed to adhere to the law in the Administrative Procedure Act by not taking into account “reliance interests. The system of regional directors and the appeals process has been in place for 40 years, providing unions and federal employees with a way to appeal if they are not satisfied with the initial decision from their offices. Before the new regulations were adopted, the agency failed to consider these reliance interests from history, as required by law.
The March rule is de facto overturned by this ruling. Now it’s up to the FLRA and the unions to work out a final order to formally repeal the regulations.
