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12:0261(60)UC
The decision of the Authority follows:
12 FLRA No. 60
DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE
AIR TRAINING COMMAND
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, TEXAS
Activity
and
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF
FEDERAL EMPLOYEES, INDEPENDENT
Petitioner
Case No. 6-UC-4
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority
under section 7112(d) of the Federal Service Labor-Management ,
Relations Statute (the Statute), a hearing was held before a hearing
officer of the Authority. The Authority has reviewed the hearing
officer's rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are free from
prejudicial error. The rulings are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, including the parties'
contentions, the Authority finds:
The Petitioner, National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE),
filed the subject petition seeking to consolidate seven existing units
of exclusive recognition at five geographical locations within the Air
Training Command (the Activity). The units presently represented by
NFFE are set forth in the Appendix. In the alternative, NFFE indicated
at the hearing that it would accept consolidation of only six of these
units, excluding the unit of "Class Act and Wage Grade employees located
at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi."
The Activity contends that the proposed consolidated unit and the
alternative unit sought both are inappropriate under the criteria
established by section 7112(a)(1) of the Statute /1/ because the
employees involved lack a clear and identifiable community of interest,
and because neither unit would promote effective dealings and efficiency
of agency operations. On the other hand, NFFE contends that either of
the proposed consolidated units fulfills these criteria and therefore is
appropriate under the Statute.
The Activity is one of eleven major commands of the United States Air
Force. The mission of the Activity is to recruit and select officers,
officer trainees and airmen, and to provide initial military and officer
training, specialized in-depth skill and technical training, and
correctional and rehabilitation training. It accomplishes these
missions by maintaining and operating training centers at 14
installations, as well as recruiting offices in numerous geographic
locations throughout the country.
Under the direction of the Commander, the Activity is headquartered,
in Texas at Randolph Air Force Base. The Activity is organized along
functional lines. In addition to the Vice Commander, Chief of Staff and
a support staff, the headquarters staff is composed of 10 functional
organizations, each headed by a Deputy Chief of Staff. The Activity
operates technical training centers at Chanute Air Force Base, Sheppard
Air Force Base, Keesler Air Force Base, Lowry Air Force Base, and
Lackland Air Force Base; in addition, there is a technical training
wing located at Goodfellow Air Force Base. The Activity conducts basic
military and officer training at Lackland Air Force Base. Undergraduate
pilot training is conducted at Columbus Air Force Base, Laughlin Air
Force Base, Reese Air Force Base, Vance Air Force Base, Sheppard Air
Force Base and Williams Air Force Base. Navigator training is conducted
at Mather Air Force Base, and pilot instructor training is conducted at
Randolph Air Force Base. The Activity operates the Air University at
Maxwell Air Force Base, which is primarily responsible for Air Force
professional education, the Air War College, Air Command and Staff
College, Squadron Officer School, Leadership and Management Development
Center, as well as other educational functions. The Activity also
operates the School of Health Care Sciences at Sheppard Air Force Base,
a correction and rehabilitation squadron at Lowry Air Force Base, and
the San Antonio Real Property Maintenance Agency and San Antonio
Contracting Center. In addition, there are a number of units assigned
to other bases, and numerous recruiting offices are located and operated
throughout the country.
In summary, in addition to a number of offices and activities
performed at locations not under its control, the Activity operates
training centers, educational and correctional units at 14 separate
geographical locations, and employs an overall total of approximately
31,000 civilian personnel. There are approximately 33 exclusive
bargaining units throughout the Activity, seven of which are represented
by NFFE at five of the 14 locations, and these units are the subject of
the instant consolidation petition. Approximately 3,000 employees
(about 10% of the Activity's total civilian workforce) are in NFFE's
bargaining units. /2/
NFFE's bargaining units are located at Chanute Air Force Base,
Illinois; Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas; Keesler Air Force Base,
Mississippi; Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado; and Columbus Air Force
Base, Mississippi. As noted above, the Activity operates technical
training centers at Chanute Air Force Base and Keesler Air Force Base.
In addition to a technical training center at Sheppard Air Force Base,
the Activity operates an undergraduate pilot training course and the
School of Health Care Sciences. At Lowry Air Force Base, the Activity
operates a correctional and rehabilitation unit in addition to a
technical training center. However, at Columbus Air Force Base, the
Activity operates only an undergraduate pilot training course. /3/ Each
technical training center operated by the Activity provides training in
a variety of skills and specialties. The center at Chanute Air Force
Base provides weapons systems support training, aircraft maintenance,
weather, missile training and aircraft specialist training. At Sheppard
Air Force Base, the mission includes communication/missile training,
aircraft maintenance, civil engineering, comptroller and transportation
training. At Keesler Air Force Base, the training includes avionics,
computer systems, radar systems/air traffic control, personnel,
administration and systems operations, and communication systems. At
Lowry Air Force Base, training is provided in the
intelligence/audiovisual area, logistics, avionics and munitions. The
proposed consolidated unit encompasses four of the six technical
training centers and two of the seven flying training units operated by
the Activity.
Each of the installations is responsible for differing and
specialized training missions of the Activity. There is virtually no
interchange or transfer of employees among the different bases, although
there is some degree of transfer between different operations of the
Activity at any one base. Of approximately 347 separate job
classifications, the proposed consolidated unit would include only 161.
The record further reveals that personnel and labor relations policies
are not centrally established; rather, extensive personnel and labor
relations authority has been delegated to the respective commanders at
each of those installations, at which there is a local civilian
personnel office, including the authority to promote, reassign,
discipline, demote, detail, compensate and separate civilian employees
without the involvement of Air Training Command headquarters. This
delegation includes substantial discretion in determining the best way
to achieve the mission of each installation, and extends to such matters
as hours of work, tours of duty, management of civilian positions,
reductions in force, civilian employee training, assignment of overtime,
setting rates of pay for wage grade employees, and negotiating with
exclusive bargaining representatives concerning the employees'
conditions of employment. Accordingly, personnel and labor relations
policies, as well as many conditions of employment, vary widely from
installation to installation.
In Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 5 FLRA No. 89
(1981), the Authority noted that section 7112(a)(1) of the Statute
requires that any unit found appropriate must conform to the three
criteria established by that section-- a clear and identifiable
community of interest among the employees in the unit, and the promotion
of effective dealings with, and the efficiency of the operations of, the
agency involved. The Authority further noted that section 7112(d),
which provides for the consolidation of existing units into a single
more comprehensive unit, requires that such consolidated unit meet the
same three criteria required of any proposed unit.
With regard to the community of interest criterion, the Authority
will consider the degree of commonality and integration of the mission
and function of the components involved; the distribution of the
employees involved throughout the organizational and geographical
components of the agency; the degree of similarity of the occupational
undertakings of the employees in the proposed unit; and the locus and
scope of personnel and labor relations authority and functions.
Department of the Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, 8 FLRA No. 4 (1982). As
noted above, the employees in the proposed consolidated unit are
involved in disparate missions requiring different job skills,
classifications and duties; are not involved in an integrated work
process; and do not transfer or interchange among the existing units.
Moreover, the proposed consolidated unit would be limited to employees
in only 5 of the Activity's 14 geographical locations, constituting only
about 10% of the Air Training Command's total civilian workforce.
Further, the authority and control over personnel and labor relations
matters historically have been delegated to each local installation
commander. Based on these facts, the Authority finds that the
petitioned for consolidated unit would not ensure a clear and
identifiable community of interest among the employees involved.
Similarly, for the foregoing reasons, the Authority concludes that the
alternative proposed consolidated unit, excluding one of the seven units
exclusively represented by NFFE within the Activity, also would not
satisfy the community of interest criterion. /4/ Accordingly, the
Authority concludes that the petition must be dismissed.
ORDER
IT IS ORDERED that the petition in Case No. 6-UC-4 be, and it hereby is,
dismissed. Issued, Washington, D.C., June 28, 1983
Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
Ronald W. Haughton, Member
Henry B. Frazier III, Member
FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
Appendix
Unit No. 1 Included: All appropriated fund professional employees
serviced by the Central Civilian Personnel Office at Chanute Technical
Training Center, Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois.
Excluded: Management officials, supervisors, employees engaged in
civilian personnel work other than those in a purely clerical capacity
and all guards.
Unit No. 2 Included: All appropriated fund non-professional
employees serviced by the Central Civilian Personnel Office at Chanute
Technical Training Center, Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois.
Excluded: Management officials, supervisors, employees engaged in
civilian personnel work other than those in a purely clerical capacity
and all guards.
Unit No. 3 Included: All General Schedule employees serviced by the
Central Civilian Personnel Office at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.
Excluded: Management officials, supervisors, employees engaged in
civilian personnel work other than those in a purely clerical capacity,
employees serving in temporary time limited appointments, and all
personnel located at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma.
Unit No. 4 Included: All General Schedule employees in the USAF
Technical Training School, Keesler Air Force Base.
Excluded: Management officials, professional employees, employees
engaged in Federal personnel work in other than a purely clerical
capacity, supervisors and guards as described in E.O. 11491.
Unit No. 5 Included: All appropriated fund professional and
non-professional civilian employees of the 3415th Technical School,
United States Air Force. (Lowry Air Force Base)
Excluded: Management officials, supervisors and employees engaged in
civilian personnel work other than those in a purely clerical capacity.
Unit No. 6 Included: All professional employees of Lowry Air Force
Base, including tenant organizations.
Excluded: All non-professional employees, temporary employees with
less than 90 day appointments, employees engaged in Federal personnel
work in other than a purely clerical capacity, confidential employees,
management officials and supervisors as defined in the Federal Service
Labor-Management Relations, employees covered under other exclusive
recognitions, and professional employees of the Air Force Accounting and
Finance Center, Air Reserve Personnel Center, Flite Executive Services
of the Office of Judge Advocate General and USAF Auditor General's
representative.
Unit No. 7 Included: All Class Act and Wage Grade employees,
including all career-conditional employees. (Columbus Air Force Base)
Excluded: All managerial employees, all non-supervisory professional
employees, employees engaged in Federal personnel work in other than a
clerical capacity, employees of tenant organizations, except Air Force
Commissary Service (AFCOMS), guards and supervisors as defined in the
Order.
--------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
/1/ Section 7112(a)(1) provides:
Sec. 7112. Determination of appropriate units for labor
organization representation
(a)(1) The Authority shall determine the appropriateness of any
unit. The Authority shall determine in each case whether, in
order to ensure employees the fullest freedom in exercising the
rights guaranteed under this chapter, the appropriate unit should
be established on an agency, plant, installation, functional, or
other basis and shall determine any unit to be an appropriate unit
only if the determination will ensure a clear and identifiable
community of interest among the employees in the unit and will
promote effective dealings with, and efficiency of the operations
of, the agency involved.
/2/ There is some dispute concerning the total number of employees
assigned to the Activity. It appears that an indeterminate number of
the total may be employees of tenant organizations and/or
non-appropriated fund employees assigned to the bases operated by the
Activity. Similarly, an indeterminate number of employees in NFFE's
units appear to be employees of tenant organizations and/or
non-appropriated fund employees. However, the record evidence as to the
total number of Activity employees will be relied upon for purposes of
this Decision.
/3/ This distinction is the basis for NFFE's proposed exclusion of
these employees from the alternative consolidated unit. Thus, this is
the only unit represented by NFFE which does not cover employees in a
technical training center.
/4/ Inasmuch as all three criteria of section 7112(a)(1) of the
Statute must be satisfied in order for the Authority to find that a
proposed consolidated unit is appropriate, a failure to satisfy any one
of them must result in a finding that the unit sought is inappropriate.
See U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 11 FLRA No. 28 (1983);
Department of the Navy, Navy Publications and Printing Service Branch
Office, Vallejo, California, 10 FLRA No. 108 (1982).