[ v13 p679 ]
13:0679(110)UC
The decision of the Authority follows:
13 FLRA No. 110
HEADQUARTERS, U.S. ARMY MATERIAL
DEVELOPMENT AND READINESS COMMAND
Activity
and
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF FEDERAL
EMPLOYEES
Petitioner
Case No. 3-UC-20003
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority
under section 7112(d) of the Federal 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, the Authority finds: The
National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) filed the instant
petition seeking to consolidate 29 units within the U.S. Army Material
Development and Readiness Command (DARCOM) for which it is the exclusive
representation. /1/ DARCOM contends that the proposed consolidation,
which would affect 21,300 employees (19.4% of its total workforce) at 17
of its 65 installations, is not appropriate because it does not meet the
appropriate unit criteria set forth in section 7112(a) of the Statute.
/2/ Specifically, DARCOM contends that the mission and function of the
17 DARCOM installations involved are significantly different and that,
particularly as the employees' duties and job skills differ from office
to office, there is no clear and identifiable community of interest
among the employees sought to be consolidated. Further, DARCOM contends
that the proposed consolidated unit does not constitute a distinct
grouping of employees sharing a clear and identifiable community of
interest. Further, DARCOM contends that the proposed consolidation
would not promote either effective dealings or efficiency of the
agency's operations, inasmuch as its organization is decentralized, with
authority vested in local installation commanders to establish and
administer civilian personnel policy, including negotiation and approval
of collective bargaining agreements, and consolidation would both
increase the cost of collective bargaining and adversely affect
long-standing local bargaining relationships.
NFFE contends that the proposed consolidation units satisfies the
requisite criteria for consolidation under section 7112(a)(1) of the
Statute, i.e., the employees sought to be included in the proposed unit
share a clear and identifiable community of interest, and consolidation
would promote effective dealings with the agency, and would promote the
efficiency of DARCOM operations by creating a more comprehensive
bargaining unit.
DARCOM consists of a nationwide network of 65 military installations
and 101 subinstallations and separate units. It has 13 major
subordinate commands: 2 material readiness commands, 4 research and
development commands, 4 combined material readiness and research and
development commands, a depot systems command (headquarters of 17 Army
depots), a test and evaluation command, and a security assistance
command. There are 46 separate staff activities reporting to
Headquarters, DARCOM and 54 project/product managers with authority over
specific types of weapons systems equipment or ammunition. DARCOM is
responsible for the life cycle material functions, including research
and development, test and evaluation, procurement and production,
storage and distribution, inventory management, maintenance and
disposal.
The proposed consolidated unit would consist of employees working at
two depot activities, three ammunition plant activities, four major
subordinate command headquarters, and four testing activities (three of
which are guard units).
The missions of the affected installations are not the same. For
example, Letterkenny Army Depot at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania operates
supply depots and provides for the receipt, storage, issue, maintenance
and disposal of a broad range of supplies and munitions; Kansas Army
Ammunition Plant, Parsons, Kansas loads, assembles and packs ammunition
and manufactures lead azide; Headquarters, Troop Support and Aviation
Material Readiness Command (TSARCOM), St. Louis, Missouri plans and
conducts integrated logistics, material readiness management, and
maintenance support functions for all assigned material/systems; and
Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona tests and evaluates a variety of equipment
in a desert environment.
The record reveals that DARCOM is decentralized, with authority
vested in local installation commanders to establish and administer
civilian personnel policy and labor-management relations policy, and to
negotiate and approve collective bargaining agreements. Although
Headquarters, DARCOM conducts a post-signing review of installation
agreements, it neither participates in the local negotiations process
nor controls the negotiations. Each installation negotiates its own
local agreement, deals with the union on a day-to-day basis, resolves
grievances, and generally conducts labor-management relations.
NFFE represents employees at 8 of DARCOM's 13 major subordinate
commands, 17 of the 65 DARCOM installations, 2 of the 17 depots and
depot activities, 3 of the 13 activities and 25 ammunition plants known
as Armaments Command, and 4 of the 11 testing activities. NFFE
exclusively represents approximately 21,300 (19.4%) employees of
DARCOM's total workforce of 109,500, and represents all of the employees
at 7 of the 17 installations included in the petition.
In Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 5 FLRA 646(1981),
the Authority dismissed petitions to consolidate units noting that
section 7112(a)(1) of the Statute requires any unit found appropriate to
conform to the three criteria established by that section -- a clear and
identifiable community of interest among the employees in the unit, the
promotion of effective dealings with, and the efficiency of the
operations of, the agency involved. The Authority further noted that
section 7112(d) of the Statute, /3/ 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.
In other decisions issued since the Department of Transportation
case, the Authority, in making its determinations on the appropriateness
of such proposed consolidated units, has considered several factors.
Primary among these factors, in determining whether there was a
community of interest, were: 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 in the
occupational undertakings of the employees in the proposed unit; and
the locus and scope of personnel and labor relations authority and
functions. /4/
The Authority finds that the employees in the proposed consolidated
unit herein to no share a clear and identifiable community of interest.
The record reveals that the proposed unit would be limited to employees
at only 2 of the 17 depots and depot activities, 3 of the 14 activities
and 25 ammunition plants in the Armaments Command, 4 of the 11 testing
activities, and only 5 of the 46 field activities which report directly
to Headquarters, DARCOM. Of the 17 DARCOM installation included in the
petition, NFFE represents all employees at only 7 locations; the other
48 installations are not included at all. Most of the employees in the
proposed consolidated unit, representing 19.4% of the DARCOM civilian
workforce, have different career interests and working conditions
because of the uniqueness of each mission. Further, there seems to be a
minimal amount of interchange of employees from the NFFE unit to
another. The job classifications and the terms and conditions of
employment at each location appear to relate to specific and unique
local functions. Moreover, personnel authority and control of labor
relations historically have been delegated to each local installation.
Given 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.
Accordingly, the Authority finds that the proposed consolidated unit
is not appropriate, and will order that the petition be dismissed. /5/
ORDER
IT IS ORDERED that the petition in Case No. 3-UC-2003 be, and it
hereby is dismissed.
Issued, Washington, D.C., January 16, 1984
Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
Ronald W. Haughton, Member
Henry B. Frazier III, Member
FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
APPENDIX
Unit No. 1
Included: All employees of the
Telecommunications Terminal, U.S.
Army Communications Agency
Presidio and all employees of the
Logistic Control Office, Presidio
of San Francisco.
Excluded: Management officials,
employees engaged in Federal
Personnel work in other than a
purely clerical capacity,
professional
employees and guards and
supervisors as defined in the
Order, as amended.
Unit No. 2
Included: All general Schedule
(GS) employees, including
temporary employees with
appointments of more than 180
days, employed at Headquarters,
United States Army Armament
Material Readiness Command, Rock
Island, Illinois.
Excluded: All management
officials,
professional employees, employees
engaged in Federal Personnel Work
in
other than a purely clerical
capacity, temporary employees with
appointments of less than 180 days
based upon a specific event
non-recurring, and supervisors and
guards as defined in Executive
Order
11491, as amended.
Unit No. 3
Included: All professional and
non-professional employees at the
U.S. Army Industrial Base
Engineering Activity, Rock
Island, Illinois.
Excluded: Management officials;
supervisors; and employees
described in 5 U.S.C. 7112(b)(2),
(3), (4), (6) and (7).
Unit No. 4
Included: All non-supervisory
guards in the civilian guard
unit, Provost Marshal Division,
U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground,
Arizona.
Excluded: Supervisors, management
officials, confidential
employees, employees engaged in
personnel work in other than a
purely clerical capacity.
Unit No. 5
Included: All non-supervisory,
Wage Grade, employees of the
United States Army Test and
Evaluation Command; the United
States Army Communications
Command - White Sands; and the
U.S. Army Troop Support Agency,
U.S. Army Commissary - White
Sands, employed at White Sands
Missile Range, New Mexico.
Excluded: All General Schedule
employees; all professional
employees; management officials;
supervisors; and employees
described in 5 U.S.C. 7112(b)%2),
(3), (4), (6) and (7).
Unit No. 6
Included: All security guard
employees of Department of
Defense Guard Division, Security
Office, White Sands Missile
Range, New Mexico.
Excluded: All professional
employees, management officials;
supervisors; and employees
described in 5 U.S.C. 7112(b)(2),
(3), (4), (6) and (7).
Unit No. 7
Included: All General Schedule
employees of the Fire Prevention
and Protection Division of
Facilities Engineering
Directorate,
White Sands Missile Range, New
Mexico.
Excluded: All professional
employees; management officials;
supervisors; and employees
described in 5 U.S.C. 7112(b)(2),
(3), (4), (6) and (7).
Unit No. 8
Included: All non-supervisory
personnel classified as guards,
employed by the Civilian Security
Police Section, Physical Security
Branch, Provost Marshal Division,
Security Office, Aberdeen Proving
Ground Command, Aberdeen
Proving Ground, Maryland.
Excluded: Employees employed in
Federal personnel work in other
than a purely clerical capacity,
management officials, and
supervisors
as defined in the Order.
Unit No. 9
Included: All full-time GS, WG
and WL employees of the U.S. Army
Armament, Research and Development
Command (ARRADCOM), Chemical
System
Laboratory (CSL), the ARRADCOM
Support Group for the CSL, and the
U.S. Army Material Readiness
Command
(ARRCOM) at Aberdeen Proving
Ground,
Maryland. /6/
Excluded: All supervisors,
management
officials, professionals,
guards, employees engaged in
personnel
work in other than a purely
clerical
capacity and employees of tenant
activities.
Unit No. 10
Included: All professional
employees of CSL, ARRCOM,
ARRADCOM and USAMRICD at the
Aberdeen Proving Ground,
Edgewood, Maryland.
Excluded: All non-professional
employees; management officials;
supervisors; and employees in 5
U.S.C. 7112(b)(2), (3), (4), (6)
and (7).
Unit No. 11
Included: All professional and
non-professional General Schedule
and Wage Grade employees of
Headquarters, U.S. Army Troop
Support
and Aviation Material Readiness
Command (TSARCOM), including
employees of the Field Service
Activity (FSA) and Administrative
and Installation Support Activity
(AISA), with duty stations in the
greater St. Louis area; all
third-year Department of the Army
centralized interns -- also known
as
DARCOM interns -- assigned to
Headquarters, U.S. Army Troop
Support
and Aviation Material Readiness
Command, (TSARCOM), with duty
stations in the greater St. Louis
area. /7/
Excluded: All supervisors,
management officials, employees
described in 5 U.S.C. 7112(b)(2),
(3), (4), (6) and (7) and
employees of the St. Louis Area
Support Center, U.S. Army Support
Activity, and U.S. Army General
Materiel and Petroleum Activity.
Unit No. 12
Included: All non-professional
employees of AVRADCOM elements
located at Fort Monmouth, New
Jersey including full-time
temporary employees.
Excluded: All professional
employees, management officials,
confidential employees, employees
engaged in personnel work in other
than a purely clerical capacity
and supervisors as defined in
Executive Order 11491, as amended.
Unit No. 13
Included: All professional
employees of AVRADCOM elements
located at Fort Monmouth, New
Jersey, including full-time
temporary employees.
Excluded: All non-professional
employees, management officials,
confidential employees, employees
engaged in personnel work in other
than a purely clerical capacity
and supervisors as defined in
Executive Order 11491, as amended.
Unit No. 14
Included: All professional and
non-professional employees of the
U.S. Army Electronics Research and
Development Command located at
For Monmouth and Lakehurst, New
Jersey, including temporary
employees with appointments of
over 90 days.
Excluded: Management officials,
supervisors as defined in
Executive Order 11491, as amended
and employees engaged in Federal
personnel work in other than a
purely clerical capacity.
Unit No. 15
Included: All guard and police
personnel of the Department of
Defense Guards at Fort Monmouth,
New Jersey.
Excluded: Management officials,
supervisors, employees engaged in
Federal personnel work in other
than a purely clerical capacity
and confidential employees.
Unit No. 16
Included: All non-supervisory
employees of the Depot Property
Division and Purchasing and
Contracting Division, Directorate
for Services, Red River, Army
Depot.
Excluded: Employees within the
divisions who are assigned to
positions in the 5700 job
classification series.
Unit No. 17
Included: All non-supervisory
classification act employees of
Red River Army Depot.
Excluded: Employees assigned to
exclusive units included in the
Guard Unit, Firefighter Unit, and
non-supervisory Depot Property
Division and purchasing and
Contracting Division unit;
professional employees; employees
engaged
in Federal personnel work in other
than a purely clerical capacity;
and temporary employees and
employees whose tenure at Red
River
Army Depot is expected to be not
more than one year.
Unit No. 18
Included: All appropriated fund
guard employees at Dugway Proving
Ground.
Excluded: All management
officials;
supervisors, professional
personnel and employees engaged
in Federal personnel work in
other than a purely clerical
capacity.
Unit No. 19
Included: All non-supervisory
General Schedule professional
employees of the Department of
the Army Headquarters, Army
Materiel Command, located in the
Washington, D.C. Metropolitan
area, including Personnel Support
Agency and Services Support
Agency.
Excluded: All non-professional
employees, Wage Grade employees,
management officials, employees
engaged in Federal personnel work
in other than a purely clerical
capacity, and supervisors,
confidential
employees and guards as
defined in Executive Order 11491,
and all other tenant
organizations.
Unit No. 20
Included: All non-supervisory
General Schedule non-professional
employees of the Department of
the Army Headquarters, Army
Materiel Command, located in the
Washington, D.C. Metropolitan
area, including Personnel Support
Agency and Services Support
Agency.
Excluded: All professional
employees, Wage Grade employees,
management officials, employees
engaged in Federal personnel work
in other than a purely clerical
capacity, and supervisors,
confidential
employees and guards as
defined in Executive Order 11491
and all other tenant
organizations.
Unit No. 21
Included: All professional
General Schedule employees,
including engineering and science
interns of Picatinny Arsenal and
tenant activities serviced by the
Picatinny Arsenal Civilian
Personnel
Office, including the
Office of the Project Manager for
Selected Ammunition, the Office
of the Project Manager for
Munitions
Production, Base Modernization
and Expansion, the Office of
the Project Manager for Safeguard
Munitions, the U.S. Army Health
Clinic, the U.S. Army
Communications
Command Detachment, the
U.S. Army Materiel Command Surety
Field Office, located at Dover,
New Jersey, the U.S. Army
Safeguard
Systems Command, Eastern
Area Contracts Field Office,
Whippany, New Jersey and Picatinny
Arsenal Engineering Field
Office, White Sands, New Mexico.
Excluded: Nonprofessional
General Schedule and Wage Grade
employees of the Microdata
Branch, employees whose primary
function is the preparation of
technical drawings, including
illustrator, technicians (draft),
engineering draftsmen (Mechanical)
and engineering draftsmen,
telephone operators, temporary
employees, employees of the
Defense Property Disposal
Activity,
employees engaged in Federal
personnel work in other than a
purely clerical capacity,
management
officials and supervisors
and guards as defined in the
Order.
Unit No. 22
Included: All Department of Army
Civil Service Employees
(Full-Time)
of the Indiana Army Ammunition
Plant,
Charlestown, Indiana.
Excluded: Management Officials,
Supervisors, Guards, (Security
Employees), Employees engaged in
Federal Personnel work in other
than a purely clerical capacity,
professional and those with a
temporary appointment limited to
one year or less.
Unit No. 23
Included: All professional and
nonprofessional Classification
Act and Wage Grade employees
employed by the U.S. Army
Development and Readiness Command
Automated Logistics Management
Systems Activity, and all U.S.
Army Development and Readiness
Command interns with duty station
at the Automated Logistics
Management Systems Activity, St.
Louis, Missouri.
Excluded: All supervisors as
defined in the Order, management
officials, employees engaged in
Federal personnel work in other
than a purely clerical capacity,
guards and temporary excepted
appointment personnel such as
Summer Employment Youth (SEY),
Youth Opportunity Back-to-School
(YOB), Neighborhood Youth Corps
(NYC).
Unit No. 24
Included: All non-supervisory
employees of the Army Plant
Representative Office (AVRADCOM),
Boeing - Vertol Company, Morton,
Pennsylvania, including
non-supervisory professional
employees.
Excluded: Supervisors,
management officials, and
employees engaged in Federal
personnel work in other than a
purely clerical capacity.
Unit No. 25
Included: All GS and WG
employees employed by the Kansas
Army Ammunition Plant in Parsons,
Kansas.
Excluded: All professional
employees; management officials;
supervisors; and employees
described in 5 U.S.C. 7112(b)(2),
(3), (4), (6) and (7).
Unit No. 26
Included: All non-supervisory,
Wage Grade employees of
Letterkenny Army Depot except
those serving under temporary or
excepted temporary appointments.
Excluded: Management officials,
supervisors, confidential
employees and employees engaged
in personnel work in other than a
purely clerical capacity.
Unit No. 27
Included: All non-professional
General Schedule employees of
Letterkenny Army Depot,
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
including all non-professional
General Schedule employee of the
U.S. Army Calibration and Repair
Center, U.S. Army Test Measurement
and Diagnostic Equipment Support
Group employed at Letterkenny
Army Depot. /8/
Excluded: Employees engaged in
Federal personnel work in other
than a purely clerical capacity,
firefighters, guards, management
officials and supervisors as
defined by the Statute, and
employees of all other tenant
agencies at Letterkenny Army
Depot.
Unit No. 28
Included: All non-professional
employees, both General Schedule
and Wage Grade of the United
States Army Depot System Command,
Letterkenny Army Depot,
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Excluded: All professional
employees, management officials,
employees engaged in Federal
personnel work in other than a
purely clerical capacity,
supervisors and guards as defined
in Executive Order 11491, as
amended.
Unit No. 29
Included: All non-supervisory
personnel of the Security
Division, U.S. Army Headquarters
Installation Support Activity
(AVSCOM), Granite City,
Illinois.
Excluded: All management
officials, professional
employees, employees engaged in
Federal personnel work in other
than a purely clerical capacity
and supervisors as defined in
Executive Order 11491, as
amended.
--------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
/1/ At the hearing before the Authority, two units were deleted from
the petition and changes were made in the description of three units.
The units presently represented by NFFE and sought to be consolidated by
the petition are set forth in the attached Appendix.
/2/ 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 any 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.
/3/ Section 7112(d) provides as follows:
(d) Two or more units which are in an agency and for which a labor
organization is the exclusive representative may, upon petition by the
agency or labor organization, be consolidated with or without an
election into a single larger unit if the Authority considers the larger
unit to be appropriate. The Authority shall certify the labor
organization as the exclusive representative of the new larger unit.
/4/ See Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Dallas, Texas, 5 FLRA
657(1981); Department of Defense, U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, 5 FLRA
677(1981); Air Force Logistics Command, United States Air Force,
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 7 FLRA No. 210(1981); Department
of the Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, 8 FLRA No. 4 (1982); U.S. Army Training
and Doctrine Command, 11 Flra no. 28(1983); U.S. Army Materiel
Development and Readiness Command, 11 FLRA No. 36(1983).
/5/ Inasmuch as all three criteria of section 7112(a)(1) of the
Statute must be satisfied in order for the Authority to find that the
proposed consolidated unit is appropriate, and a failure to satisfy any
one of them must result in a finding that the unit sought is
inappropriate, the Authority's finding that the unit sought herein fails
to meet the community of interest criterion makes it unnecessary to
address the other two criteria. See Department of the Navy, Aviation
Supply Office, 12 FLRA No. 92 (1983), at note 4.
/6/ As amended at the hearing before the Authority.
/7/ As amended at the hearing before the Authority.
/3/ As amended at the hearing before the Authority.