It's certainly not anti-union bias. All the policy makers at DHS are represented by the union.
It's more like policy that was already in place. One of the questions on the fs application is "are you striking". I've never had anyone who was, so I'm not familiar with the policy that comes into play for strikers; I presume based on what I am hearing (including something that came from my supervisor at a staff meeting a few days ago) that strikers are ineligible if they apply w/in 30 days of leaving their productive job....that's 100 hours a month. I think PROBABLY it's just the striker who is ineligible.
Now most strikers will have received income in the month in which they are ineligible for fs; they will have their paychecks for the month and we count that in the month they apply in anyway; so nobody is likely starving. After 30 days from the date their strike commenced, I am going to hazard a guess that they are eligible, at least in that way, just as anyone else is eligible after a certain time elapses.
I will look up the policy on this. It could be more complicated; there could be special sanctions for strikers; but if there are, I've never heard of them or seen them applied before.
