The Solidarity Docket
Week of May 22, 2026
This week brings an appellate win for VA employees, two significant developments at HHS reflecting the continuing restructuring of that department, and a new legal challenge to the administration's interference with the federal arbitration process.
First Circuit Upholds Union Contract for More Than 300,000 VA Employees
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit unanimously denied the Department of Veterans Affairs' motion for an emergency stay, keeping in place a preliminary injunction requiring the VA to honor its master collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of Government Employees National Veterans Affairs Council.
The underlying case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. It challenges VA Secretary Doug Collins' August 2025 termination of the master CBA covering more than 300,000 VA employees, including doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and cemetery workers. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose issued the preliminary injunction on March 13, ordering the VA to reinstate the agreement for the remainder of its agreed-upon term.
The VA's compliance has been contested from the outset. After initially restoring the agreement following the injunction, the VA re-terminated the CBA. DuBose issued an enforcement order in April, characterizing the VA's conduct as blatant disrespect for the court's ruling. The VA then appealed and sought the emergency stay the First Circuit has now denied. The CBA remains operative while the litigation proceeds.
The district court found that the VA terminated the AFGE contract in retaliation for protected First Amendment activity and that it favored other unions over AFGE in implementing the March 2025 executive order eliminating collective bargaining at more than 20 agencies.
As we discussed in our litigation roundup last week, the legality of those underlying executive orders remains under active review in the Ninth Circuit and the D.C. Circuit. We will update you as soon as there is movement in either of those cases.
Schedule P/C Conversions Begin at HHS
We have had this on our radar for awhile, knowing it was inevitable, but now we have the first signs of a federal agency converting employee positions to the new Schedule P/C.
The Department of Health and Human Services has notified supervisors that it is beginning Schedule Policy/Career conversions, targeting hundreds of GS-15 positions across the department, with additional positions to follow.
Schedule P/C is the administration's renamed and revived version of Schedule F. Positions reclassified under Schedule P/C are removed from standard civil service protections, and the employees who hold them will have significantly fewer rights on the job.
HHS told supervisors that conversions are “based on the nature of a position, not the performance or conduct of an individual.” HHS says the conversions will not take effect until President Trump issues an implementing executive order, which has not yet been signed.
Across the federal government, the administration has estimated that approximately 50,000 employees will ultimately be reclassified under Schedule P/C. OPM issued a final rule establishing the Schedule P/C framework in November 2025. Multiple legal challenges to that rule are pending. You can follow those cases in our Litigation Tracker.
HHS Issues New RIF Notices to Employees Missed in 2025 Layoffs
Separately at HHS, reduction-in-force notices have been sent to 78 employees who were previously, but apparently inadvertently, spared from the department's April 2025 layoffs.
The notices cover employees at eight HHS component agencies. The National Institutes of Health accounts for the largest share, with 43 notices, followed by the Office of the Secretary with 14. Additional notices went to employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Administration for Children and Families, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
A HHS spokesperson described the new notices as necessary to ensure that RIF actions are administered consistently within properly defined competitive areas. According to Decker's communication to staff, the April 2025 action missed certain employees because positions were improperly coded or inadvertently excluded from the original competitive area determinations. Affected CDC employees are expected to be separated within 90 days of receiving their notices.
HHS began its reorganization in April 2025, when it laid off approximately 10,000 employees, and encouraged another 10,000 to depart through separation incentives and early retirement. The department has since reinstated some employees and announced plans to hire 12,000 new staff.
Unions Challenge FMCS Guidance Restricting Arbitration Access
On May 15, 2026, a group of unions including the American Federation of Government Employees, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, the National Treasury Employees Union, and the National Federation of Federal Employees filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging guidance issued by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service that restricts union access to arbitration at agencies covered by the administration's national security executive orders.
The complaint alleges that FMCS violated the Administrative Procedure Act when general counsel Anna Davis issued a memo directing FMCS not to appoint arbitrators to hear grievances at those agencies unless management consents to the appointment. Historically, parties consent to the FMCS process when they sign a contract. Most federal CBAs require the parties to obtain a panel from FMCS as part of the statutorily required negotiated grievance procedure.
The practical effect of the FMCS’ new memorandum is to give agency management a veto over whether a union can proceed to arbitration on any given case. In at least one VA matter, a VA arbitrator appointment was blocked following private agency communication with FMCS.
Union Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the April Memorandum unlawful, vacate it, and order FMCS to comply with its regulations and provide panels to unions that request them.
The 2026 Federal Employee Exit Survey is LIVE
The Accountability and Reform Research Consortium (ARRC), a research initiative of the Volcker Alliance, has developed the 2026 Federal Employee Exit Survey.
Former federal employees who left federal service on or after November 5, 2024 (even those who have since rejoined), as well as those actively planning their departures from federal service, are invited to help us understand the causes and consequences of recent departures from federal service by participating in the Federal Employee Exit Survey. The survey takes approximately 20 minutes to complete and allows respondents to:
Share your experiences and the factors that contributed to your departure from federal service
Offer perspectives on the potential effects of recent departures on federal capacity
Build a clearer picture of what these departures mean for federal capacity and for departing employees personally
Results will be reported publicly in aggregate form, no individual responses will be identifiable, and will be used in academic research products and policy discussions aimed at strengthening government service.
Follow this link to the survey: LINK
If you decide to participate, please respond by May 29. Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this valuable research!
In Solidarity,
Suzanne Summerlin
General Counsel
Rise Up: Federal Workers Legal Defense Network
