In an order dated August 12, Federal District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer said the guidelines, which were to go into effect three days later, “fail to ‘ensure that employees may…bargain collectively,’ as required in the Homeland Security Act.”

The White House has described the guidelines as a model for restrictions it would like to impose on workers at other federal agencies. They would also be used as a precedent by employers to try to impose restrictions on unions in private industry in the name of “national security.”

Four unions and the metal trades department of the AFL-CIO, which represent workers at DHS, filed suit to block the regulations when they were published in February. The unions represent DHS employees not directly involved in “intelligence” gathering, counterintelligence, or investigations of “terrorism.” Unions representing workers at the Defense Department held a rally in Washington in July to oppose the Pentagon’s plans to implement similar rules.

The ruling said the 2002 Homeland Security Act gave DHS “extraordinary authority” to develop personnel guidelines “without regard to many of the constraints imposed by the civil service laws.” Those laws already deprive unions of the right to bargain on any workplace issue in which terms are already set by federal law or any action taken by an agency deemed necessary in an “emergency.”

The judge said the new rules would make any semblance of collective bargaining “illusory.” They offer DHS numerous ways to unilaterally void contract terms. Any matter the agency agrees to negotiate can be taken off the table simply by issuing a new directive or policy.

“A system of ‘collective bargaining’ that permits the unilateral repudiation of agreements by one party is not collective bargaining at all,” the decision states.

The rules would exempt DHS from having to negotiate over hiring practices, work assignments, contracting out work, or over procedures and equipment used by workers. The agency would not be required to negotiate over procedures for suspensions, firings, reductions in pay or grade, or disciplinary action against workers. Seniority provisions would be eliminated, allowing bosses to choose which workers to lay off.

The judge said she would consider any request from DHS to make the implementation of her order more selective. The agency has not indicated whether it will appeal the ruling.

The new work rules are the most recent attempt by the government to weaken or break the unions of government workers. In 2002 a presidential executive order denied union representation to more than 500 employees at the U.S. Attorney’s office and other divisions of the Justice Department. The White House claimed union contracts could restrict the ability of workers “to protect Americans and national security.”

In January 2003 the federal Transportation Security Agency issued an order barring airport screeners from joining a union, saying that collective bargaining is “not compatible” with fighting “terrorism.”
 
 
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