Mealey's (May 5, 2020, 3:18 PM EDT) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — An arbitrator erred in determining that a union waited too long to invoke arbitration where it did so more than a year after the first failed mediation session, but prior to a second mediation session, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled May 1, vacating the arbitrator’s ruling and remanding for a ruling on whether the “premature request . . . ripened into a timely one” (Jimmiekaye Buffkin v. Department of Defense, No. 19-1531, Fed. Cir., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 13993)....