Authority Exceeded, Unions Argue.

While the unions have raised many similar objections to the DHS plans in the past, they had taken a somewhat more conciliatory approach than was evident in their formal comments, in which they said that in several areas the agency may be trying to exceed the authority it was granted under the 2002 law creating DHS-possibly suggesting that unions would sue over various parts of the policy if significant revisions aren’t made as the rules move to the final stage. “When it enacted provisions to protect collective bargaining rights, Congress could not have intended those rights to be eviscerated in the manner that you propose,” the comments said. “When it mandated that employees be treated fairly and afforded the protections of due process, and authorized only limited changes to current appellate processes, Congress could not have envisioned the drastic reductions in employee rights that you propose.”