DHS Workers Beat Unionbusting

Workers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) won a five-and-a-half-year battle against unionbusting last Friday when DHS officials dropped demands to implement a new personnel system that would have curbed union rights, reported Stephen Barr in Wednesday's Washington Post. The personnel system - initiated by the Bush Administration - would have overridden "any provision in a union contract by issuing a department-wide directive," reported Barr. "The rules also would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for unions to negotiate over arrangements for staffing, deployments, technology and other workplace matters." But unions and workers fought the changes, garnering support from Democrats in Congress and winning two lawsuits that stopped implementation of the proposed changes.