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11:0156(36)UC - Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command and NAGE -- 1983 FLRAdec RP



[ v11 p156 ]
11:0156(36)UC
The decision of the Authority follows:


 11 FLRA No. 36
 
 U.S. ARMY MATERIEL DEVELOPMENT
 AND READINESS COMMAND
 Activity
 
 and
 
 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
 GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
 Petitioner
 
                                            Case No. 3-UC-18
 
                            DECISION AND ORDER
 
    Upon a petition duly 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, the Authority finds:
 
    The National Association of Government Employees (NAGE) filed the
 instant petition seeking to consolidate 13 units within the U.S. Army
 Materiel Development and Readiness Command (DARCOM) for which it is the
 exclusive representative.  /1/ (The units presently represented by NAGE
 and included in the petition are set forth in the Appendix.) DARCOM
 contends that the proposed consolidation, which would affect 8,536 (or
 8.1%) of its total workforce of 104,121 employees at nine of its 66
 installations, is not appropriate because it does not meet the unit
 criteria set forth in section 7112(a)(1) of the Statute.  /2/
 Specifically, DARCOM argues that the missions and functions of the nine
 DARCOM installations involved are sufficiently different as to work
 against commonality.  In this regard, DARCOM further argues that the
 divergent missions and functions of the various installations require
 the performance of different duties requiring different job skills and
 result in no transfer of employees among the installations.  Under these
 circumstances, DARCOM contends, the proposed consolidated unit does not
 constitute a distinct grouping of employees sharing a clear and
 identifiable community of interest.  Further, DARCOM argues that such
 consolidation would not promote either effective dealings or efficiency
 of 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.
 
    NAGE, on the other hand, contends that the proposed consolidated unit
 would enhance the quality and character of the labor-management
 relations program in the federal public sector, and satisfies the
 appropriate unit criteria set forth in section 7112(a)(1) of the
 Statute.  Thus, NAGE asserts that all of the employees in the proposed
 consolidated unit are subject to similar personnel and labor relations
 policies promulgated pursuant to Department of the Army regulations, and
 further share a community of interest.  In this regard, NAGE further
 asserts that its status as exclusive representative for only 8% of the
 DARCOM workforce does not render the proposed consolidation
 inappropriate.  Moreover, NAGE contends that negotiation of one master
 agreement at the Command level would be more efficient and cost
 effective, and thus would promote effective dealings and efficiency of
 operations.
 
                                   FACTS
 
    DARCOM consists of a nationwide network of 66 military installations
 and 250 separate units.  It has 14 major subordinate commands:  3
 materiel readiness commands, 6 research and development commands, 2
 combined material readiness and research and development commands, a
 depot systems command (headquarters of 21 Army depots) and a test and
 evaluation command.  Further, there are 45 separate staff activities
 reporting directly to Headquarters, DARCOM and 57 project/product
 managers with authority over specific types of weapons systems,
 equipment or ammunition.  DARCOM is responsible for the life cycle
 materiel 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
 three depots and depot activities, two arsenals, one directorate, one
 research and development laboratory, one materiel readiness command, and
 one proving ground.  The missions and functions of the nine affected
 installations are as follows:
 
    The Pueblo Army Depot Activity operates a supply depot activity under
 the Command of Tooele Army Depot providing for the receipt, storage,
 issuance and disposal of assigned commodities.  The Savanna Army Depot
 Activity provides for receipt, storage support (care of materiel in
 storage, rewarehousing, preservation and packaging, set
 assembly/disassembly, physical inventory, stock locator system and
 training), renovation, and issuance functions.  The Red River Depot
 operates a supply depot providing for the receipt, storage, issuance,
 maintenance and disposal of assigned commodities as well as providing
 installation support to tenant activities.  The Watervliet Arsenal
 performs industrial engineering, procurement, fabrication, and product
 assurance of assigned materiel, and provides administrative and
 logistical support services to tenant activities.  The Rock Island
 Arsenal manufactures assigned materiel and provides required direct
 support, including engineering and product assurance;  and performs tool
 set on Equipment Materiel and Basic Issue Item assembly for the U.S.
 Army Armament Readiness Command (ARRCOM), U.S. Army Tank-Automotive
 Materiel Readiness Command (TARCOM), and other national inventory
 control points as required.  The Natick Readiness and Development
 Command accomplishes assigned research and development in the physical
 and biological sciences, and engineering to meet military requirements
 in the commodity areas of textiles, clothing, body armor, footwear,
 insecticides and fungicides, subsistence, containers, food service
 equipment, field support equipment (as assigned), tentage and equipage,
 and air delivery equipment.  The Eustis Directorate plans, develops and
 accomplishes a portion of the laboratory's program and controls the
 resources applied in support of the program, and develops
 recommendations to satisfy Army Air mobility requirements.  The Armament
 Materiel Readiness Command exercises logistics (materiel readiness)
 management, including follow-on-procurement;  production;  engineering
 in support of production;  industrial management;  product assurance;
 maintenance engineering and Integrated Logistics Support management;
 value engineering;  product improvement;  materiel management;
 configuration management;  international logistics, tools and equipment
 engineering;  transportation and traffic management for assigned
 systems/materiel;  and executes the mission of single manager for
 conventional ammunition for the Department of Defense.  Lastly, the
 Dugway Proving Ground plans, conducts, evaluates, and reports the
 results of development and development-type tests, in accordance with
 integrated testing cycle policies, and assesses the military value of
 chemical warfare and biological defense systems, flame incendiary and
 smoke obscurant systems.
 
    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 DARCOM
 Headquarters 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.
 
    NAGE represents employees at 2 of DARCOM's 14 major subordinate
 commands, 9 of the 66 DARCOM installations, 3 of the 19 depots and depot
 activities, 2 of the 13 activities and 25 ammunition plants known as
 Armaments Command, and 1 of the 11 testing activities.  NAGE exclusively
 represents 8,536 (8.1%) of DARCOM's total workforce of 104,121
 employees, and represents all of the employees at only 2 of the 9
 installations included in the petition.
 
    In Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 5 FLRA No. 89
 (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 addition to the Department of Transportation case, the Authority
 has issued other decisions involving the proposed consolidation of units
 under the Statute.  /4/ In making its determinations on the
 appropriateness of such proposed consolidated units, the Authority
 considered several factors.  As stated in Department of the Navy, U.S.
 Marine Corps, 8 FLRA No. 4 (1982), 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.
 
    The Authority finds that the employees in the proposed consolidated
 unit herein do not 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 14 major subordinate commands, 2 of the 13 activities
 and 25 ammunition plants in the Armaments Command, and only 1 of 11
 testing activities.  Of the nine DARCOM installations included in the
 petition, NAGE represents all employees at only two locations;  the
 other 57 DARCOM installations are not included at all.  The proposed
 consolidated unit includes only a relatively small portion of the
 employees in each division of DARCOM with most of them having different
 career interests and working conditions because of the uniqueness of
 each mission.  Further, there appears to be a near total lack of job
 mobility from one NAGE unit to another.  The job classifications and the
 terms and conditions of employment at each location also appear to
 relate to specific and unique local functions.  The record also reveals
 that the delegation of authority to each installation commander has
 resulted in local control over personnel, labor relations (including
 negotiating separate bargaining agreements) and working conditions.
 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.
 
    The Authority further finds that it would not promote effective
 dealings to require DARCOM-wide negotiations for a unit wholly
 unrepresented in 12 of the 14 DARCOM major commands and 57 of the 66
 DARCOM installations, and thus not reflective of DARCOM's organizational
 structure.  Moreover, as noted above, effective supervision, personnel
 authority and control of labor relations have been historically
 delegated to the local installations and have resulted in effective
 bargaining relationships, not only with NAGE, but with some 13 other
 labor organizations (exclusively representing approximately 70% of
 DARCOM's employees) as well.  Thus, the Authority concludes that
 effective dealings with DARCOM, and the efficiency of its operations,
 would not be promoted by the proposed unit.
 
    Accordingly, the Authority finds that the proposed consolidated unit
 is not appropriate, and will order that the petition be dismissed.
 
                                   ORDER
 
    IT IS ORDERED that the petition in Case No. 3-UC-18 be, and it hereby
 is, dismissed.  Issued, Washington, D.C., January 28, 1983
                                       Ronald W. Haughton, Chairman
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Member
                                       Leon B. Applewhaite, Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
 
                                 APPENDIX
 
    UNIT 1
 
    Included:  All non-supervisory, non-professional employees at PUAD
 and the Pueblo Army Depot Field Calibration Activity at Fort Bliss,
 Texas.
 
    Excluded:  All employees as stated in section 10 of Executive Order
 11491, as amended, and those units covered by exclusive recognition
 which are Guard units, Fire Prevention and Protection Units,
 Communications Center Units, Boiler and Domestic Heating Units and 6th
 Army Medical Unit which are serviced by PUAD through servicing agreement
 and all non-appropriated employees.
 
    UNIT 2
 
    Included:  All non-supervisory Wage Grade employees of the Employer
 at the Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, Illinois.
 
    Excluded:  Management officials, Quality Assurance Specialist
 (Ammunition Surveillance) personnel and Interns, professional employees,
 Civilian Personnel Technicians, and other personnel as excluded by
 Executive Order 11491, as amended.
 
    UNIT 3
 
    Included:  All non-supervisory employees in the Fire Protection and
 Prevention Branch at the Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, Illinois.
 
    Excluded:  Management officials, Quality Assurance Specialist
 (Ammunition Surveillance) personnel and Interns, professional employees,
 Civilian Personnel Technicians, and other personnel as excluded by
 Executive Order 11491, as amended.
 
    UNIT 4
 
    Included:  All non-supervisory employees in the Security Office at
 Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, Illinois.
 
    Excluded:  Management officials, Quality Assurance Specialist
 (Ammunition Surveillance) personnel and Interns, professional employees,
 Civilian Personnel Technicians, and other personnel as excluded by
 Executive Order 11491, as amended.
 
    UNIT 5
 
    Included:  All non-supervisory class-act employees of the Employer at
 the Savanna Army Depot, Savanna, Illinois.
 
    Excluded:  Management officials, Quality Assurance Specialist
 (Ammunition Surveillance) personnel and Interns, professional employees,
 Civilian Personnel Technicians, and other personnel as excluded by
 Executive Order 11491, as amended.
 
    UNIT 6
 
    Included:  All non-supervisory, professional employees located at
 Headquarters, United States Army Armament Materiel Readiness Command,
 Rock Island, Illinois.
 
    Excluded:  Management officials, employees engaged in Federal
 personnel work in other than a purely clerical capacity, supervisors,
 guards, non-professional General Schedule (GS) employees and Wage Grade
 (WG) employees.
 
    UNIT 7
 
    Included:  All General Schedule (GS) employees, including temporary
 employees with appointments of more than 180 days, employed at Rock
 Island Arsenal and the United States Army Communications Command
 Agency-Rock Island and Midwest Commissary Field Office-Rock Island
 Commissary.
 
    Excluded:  All management officials and supervisors, all employees
 engaged in Federal personnel work in other than a purely clerical
 capacity, guards, firefighters, professional employees, Wage Grade
 employees and temporary employees with appointments of less than 180
 days based upon a specific event non-recurring.
 
    UNIT 8
 
    Included:  All employees of the U.S. Army Natick Laboratories at
 Natick, Massachusetts and at Sudbury, Massachusetts.
 
    Excluded:  Management executives, employees engaged in Federal
 personnel work in other than purely clerical capacities and supervisors
 as set forth in Executive Order 11491, as amended.
 
    UNIT 9
 
    Included:  All civilian employees paid from appropriated funds at the
 Watervliet Arsenal except the following:
 
    Excluded:  1.  All supervisors and management officials.
 
    2.  All employees engaged in Federal personnel work in other than a
 purely clerical capacity.
 
    3.  All professional employees.
 
    4.  All Industrial Engineering Technicians in Work Measurement
 Section, Production Planning and Control Division.
 
    5.  All secretaries and clerk-stenographers GS-04 and above, to Staff
 Office Chiefs, Directorate Chiefs and above.
 
    6.  All employees, GS-09 and above, identified in the following
 managerial classes:  018, 110, 341, 343, 345, 560, 1152 and those
 employees, GS-12 and above, in the 334 class.
 
    7.  All guards.
 
    8.  All staff advisors to the Commanding Officers, e.g., EEO Officer,
 Small Business Advisor and Administrative Officer.
 
    UNIT 10
 
    Included:  All non-supervisory Wage Grade employees, temporary Wage
 Grade employees of Red River Army Depot, Texarkana, Texas, and the U.S.
 Army Communications Command Detachment, Red River Army Depot, Texarkana,
 Texas.
 
    Excluded:  Management officials, professional employees, General
 Schedule employees, employees assigned to exclusive units in the
 Electrician's Unit;  Mobile Rail Unit;  non-supervisory Wage Grade
 employees in the Property and Procurement Division;  Plumbers,
 Pipefitters, Welders and Fixed Industrial Equipment Mechanics Unit;
 Water Treatment Plant Operators Unit;  employees assigned to tenant
 activities other than the U.S. Army Communications Command Detachment,
 Red River Army Depot;  guards;  employees engaged in Federal personnel
 work in other than a purely clerical capacity and supervisors as defined
 in Executive Order 11491, as amended.
 
    UNIT 11
 
    Included:  All appropriated fund employees at Dugway Proving Ground.
 
    Excluded:  All management officials, supervisors, guards,
 professional personnel and employees engaged in Federal personnel work
 in other than a purely clerical capacity.
 
    UNIT 12
 
    Included:  All General Schedule non-supervisory professional
 employees at Dugway Proving Ground.
 
    Excluded:  All management officials, supervisors, guards,
 professional personnel and employees engaged in Federal personnel work
 except in a purely clerical capacity.
 
    UNIT 13
 
    Included:  All employees of the Eustis Directorate, U.S. Army Air
 Mobility Research and Development Laboratory paid under appropriated
 funds.
 
    Excluded:  Supervisors and professional employees of the above-named
 Activity.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 --------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
    /1/ NAGE also filed a separate petition (Case No. 3-UC-21) for
 consolidation of its units within the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine
 Command (TRADOC) which the Regional Director consolidated with this
 case.  Thereafter, the Authority granted TRADOC's request to sever the
 two cases for the reasons stated therein.  See U.S. Army Training and
 Doctrine Command, 11 FLRA No. 28 (1983).
 
 
    /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 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.
 
 
    /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
 No. 90 (1981);  Department of Defense, U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, 5
 FLRA No. 91 (1981);  Air Force Logistics Command, United States Air
 Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 7 FLRA No. 33 (1981);
 Department of the Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, 8 FLRA No. 4 (1982).