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15:0552(116)CU
The decision of the Authority follows:
15 FLRA No. 116
PERSONNEL SUPPORT ACTIVITY
NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE NEW LONDON
GROTON, CONNECTICUT
Activity/Petitioner
and
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL R1-100F
Labor Organization/Intervenor
Case No. 1-CU-45
PERSONNEL SUPPORT ACTIVITY DETACHMENT
NEW LONDON, NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE NEW LONDON
GROTON, CONNECTICUT
Activity/Petitioner
and
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL R1-100S
Intervenor
Case No. 1-CU-46
PERSONNEL SUPPORT ACTIVITY DETACHMENT
NEW LONDON, NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE NEW
LONDON, GROTON, CONNECTICUT
Activity/Petitioner
and
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL R1-100
Labor Organization/Intervenor
Case No. 1-CU-47
PERSONNEL SUPPORT ACTIVITY
NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE NEW LONDON
GROTON, CONNECTICUT
Activity/Petitioner
and
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL R100F
Labor Organization/Intervenor
Case No. 1-AC-5
PERSONNEL SUPPORT ACTIVITY DETACHMENT
NEW LONDON, NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE NEW LONDON
GROTON, CONNECTICUT
Activity/Petitioner
and
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL R1-1005
Labor Organization/Intervenor
Case No. 1-AC-6
PERSONNEL SUPPORT ACTIVITY DETACHMENT
NEW LONDON, NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE NEW
LONDON, GROTON, CONNECTICUT
Activity/Petitioner
and
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL R1-100
Labor Organization/Intervenor
Case No. 1-AC-7
DECISION AND ORDER CLARIFYING UNITS
Upon petitions duly filed under section 7111(b)(2) of the Federal
Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (the Statute), a hearing in
this consolidated matter was held before a hearing officer of the
Authority. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon careful consideration of the entire record, including the
contentions of the parties, the Authority finds: The National
Association of Government Employees, Local R1-100 (NAGE), was recognized
in 1965 by the Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut
(Naval Submarine Base), as the exclusive representative for a unit of
its nonprofessional employees. The record also indicates that NAGE
Local R1-100 at all times material has been the exclusive representative
for separate units consisting of all nonprofessional employees of the
Navy Finance Office, Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton,
Connecticut (Navy Finance Office) and the Naval Submarine School, Naval
Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut (Naval Submarine School),
respectively, two tenant activities at the Naval Submarine Base.
In 1979, the Petitioners herein, the Personnel Support Activity,
Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut (Personnel Support
Activity) and the Personnel Support Activity Detachment, Naval Submarine
Base New London, Groton, Connecticut (Personnel Support Activity
Detachment), were created by a reorganization. The Petitioners filed
the above-captioned clarification of unit petitions (CU) and amendment
of certification petitions (AC) to determine the status of the existing
bargaining units, the unit placement of certain employees affected by
the reorganization, and whether any new units were created by the
reorganization. /1/
As a result of the reorganization, the tenant Navy Finance Office was
abolished and all of its employees were organizationally transferred to
the newly-created Personnel Support Activity. Additionally,
approximately 17 employees from the Naval Submarine School and
approximately 17 employees from the Naval Submarine Base were
organizationally transferred to create the newly-established Personnel
Support Activity Detachment. The Petitioners contend that the Navy
Finance Office thus was disestablished, that its employees were
transferred to the newly-established Personnel Support Activity, and
that the Naval Submarine School and the Naval Submarine Base bargaining
units remain intact despite their losses of employees to the Personnel
Support Activity Detachment. Further, the Petitioners contend that the
Personnel Support Activity Detachment also is a newly-created, separate
unit. Alternatively, the Petitioners contend that the Personnel Support
Activity and the Personnel Support Activity Detachment constitute one
newly-established collective bargaining unit. NAGE contends that no
changes have been effected by the reorganization, and that the petitions
therefore should be dismissed. Alternatively, NAGE contends that a
successor activity has been created in PSAD.
As noted, as a result of the reorganization all employees of the Navy
Finance Office and their supervisors were transferred intact to the
newly created Personnel Support Activity. They remain in the same
location under the same supervisors, perform the same duties and retain
the same responsibilities. It is concluded that, as a result of the
reorganization, the only change which occurred was in the name of the
Activity. Accordingly, the Authority will grant the petition to amend
certification in Case No. 1-AC-5 to change the name of the activity from
Navy Finance Office, Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton,
Connecticut, to Personnel Support Activity, Naval Submarine Base New
London, Groton, Connecticut /2/ and the petition in Case No. 1-CU-45
shall be dismissed.
With regard to the petition filed by the Personnel Support Activity
Detachment in Case Nos. 1-AC-6 and 1-AC-7, the record establishes that
employees from two separate activities, the Naval Submarine School, and
the Naval Submarine Base, who had been members of two separate
bargaining units for which NAGE is recognized as exclusive
representative, were transferred to the newly created Personnel Support
Activity Detachment. It is clear that the effect of the reorganization
is that these employees were transferred from two separate bargaining
units in two different activities into a newly-created activity; the
Authority therefore concludes that the petitions to amend certification
herein are inappropriate, since the Personnel Support Activity
Detachment is a newly-created entity, and the reorganization resulted in
more than merely a change in the name of the Activity. Accordingly, the
petitions to amend certification in Case Nos. 1-AC-6 and 1-AC-7 shall be
dismissed.
The Authority concludes, contrary to the alternative position
advanced by the petitions, that all employees of the Personnel Support
Activity and the Personnel Support Activity Detachment cannot be
included in the same unit. The record fails to establish that the
employees transferred to the Personnel Support Activity Detachment share
a community of interest with or are a part of the Personnel Support
Activity. Accordingly, based on the record before us, it is concluded
that the employees in the Personnel Support Activity Detachment have not
been added or accreted to the unit of exclusive recognition at the
Personnel Support Activity. /3/ In so concluding, the Authority shall
not pass upon whether the employees of the Personnel Support Activity
Detachment would constitute an appropriate unit for collective
bargaining purposes. /4/
Finally, with regard to the petitions filed in Case Nos. 1-CU-46 and
1-CU-47, noting no contentions to the contrary, the Authority finds that
the units of exclusive recognition at the Naval Submarine Base, with
approximately 400 employees remaining in the unit, and the Naval
Submarine School, with approximately 13 employees remaining in the unit,
excluding the respective employees transferred to the newly-created
Personnel Support Activity Detachment, continue to be appropriate.
Accordingly, the Authority will clarify these units of exclusive
recognition to exclude those employees transferred, as a result of the
reorganization, to the Personnel Support Activity Detachment.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED in Case No. 1-AC-5, that the bargaining unit of
all employees of the Navy Finance Office, Naval Submarine Base New
London, Groton, Connecticut, exclusively represented by National
Association of Government Employees, Local R1-100, be amended to reflect
the change in the name of the Activity to the Personnel Support
Activity, Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED in Case Nos. 1-CU-46 and 1-CU-47, that the
units of employees at the Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton,
Connecticut and the Naval Submarine School New London, Groton,
Connecticut, be clarified to exclude therefrom the employees transferred
to the Personnel Support Activity Detachment.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the petitions in Case Nos. 1-CU-45, 1-AC-6
and 1-AC-7 be, and they hereby are, dismissed.
Issued, Washington, D.C., August 16, 1984
Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman
Ronald W. Haughton, Member
Henry B. Frazier III, Member
FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
--------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
/1/ The petitions in case nos. 1-CU-45 and 1-AC-5 were filed by the
Personnel Support Activity seeking a unit of approximately 40 former
Navy Finance Office employees who were transferred to the Personnel
Support Activity when the Finance Office was abolished. The petitions
seek a unit of such employees now at the new Personnel Support Activity
or in the alternative that group plus those former Navy Finance Office
employees now at the Personnel Support Activity Detachment. The AC
petition would change the name of the Activity from the now
disestablished Navy Finance Office to whichever new Activity is
determined to be appropriate.
Similarly, the petitions in case nos. 1-CU-46 and 1-AC-6, filed by
the Detachment, seek employees of the former Naval Submarine School
Personnel Office in either a Detachment unit or Detachment and Personnel
Support Activity unit. There are approximately 17 unit employees who
went from the Submarine School Personnel Office to the Personnel Support
Detachment (which is under the Personnel Support Activity) at the time
of the reorganization.
Finally, case nos. 1-CU-47 and 1-AC-7 relate to approximately 17
former employees of the disestablished personnel office at the Naval
Submarine Base and would accept units of either the Detachment or the
Detachment and the Personnel Support Activity.
/2/ See Headquarters, 1947th Administrative Support Group, U.S. Air
Force, Washington, D.C., 14 FLRA No. 43 (1983).
/3/ See, e.g., U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Operations
Office, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 15 FLRA No. 24 (1984).
/4/ It is noted that this finding would not preclude any labor
organization from seeking, through an appropriate petition, a
determination as to whether or not a new unit appropriate for the
purpose of exclusive recognition has been created as a result of the
establishment of the Personnel Support Activity Detachment.