I don't believe we would have reached an agreement without him. If either side wants to make changes to staff policies, it can put these forward and they will become the focus for talks that year. The talks themselves are limited to a three-month period. If the discussions prove to be difficult, a mediator can be appointed. In this instance Judge Gold was quite helpful.
Garland endorses the current framework for talks.
I've seen discussions over a single policy go on for five years. Under this arrangement, we settled more than one difficult issue in a matter of months. I'd say that's quite an improvement.