14:0420(65)RA - Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Western-Pacific Region and AFGE Local 2555 -- 1984 FLRAdec RP

 14 FLRA No. 65
 
 DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
 FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION
 WESTERN-PACIFIC REGION
 Activity/Petitioner
 
 and
 
 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
 EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 2555, AFL-CIO
 Labor Organization
 
                                            Case No. 8-RA-20001
 
                            DECISION AND ORDER
 
    Upon a petition duly filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority
 under section 7111(b)(2) 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
 Activity/Petitioner's contentions, the Authority finds:  The American
 Federation of Government Employees, Local 2555, AFL-CIO (AFGE) has been
 the exclusive representative of a unit consisting of all the
 professional employees of the Airways Facilities Division, Pacific-Asia
 Region, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), since January 31, 1979.
 On March 21, 1982, the Pacific-Asia Region, which covered Guam, American
 Samoa, and the Hawaiian Islands, was abolished and its functions were
 merged into the Western Region of the FAA, which covered California,
 Arizona and Nevada.  The newly formed Western-Pacific Region, the
 Activity/Petitioner herein, contends that, as a result of the
 reorganization effectuated on March 21, 1982, the unit represented by
 the AFGE no longer retains a separate and unique identity which would
 entitle its employees to continued exclusive representation pursuant to
 the requirements set forth in section 7112(a)(1) of the Statute.  /1/
 AFGE took no position at the hearing concerning the continued
 appropriateness of its certified unit following the reorganization and
 did not submit a brief.
 
    The record reveals that, after the reorganization, all the managerial
 functions for the newly formed Western-Pacific Region, including the
 responsibility for personnel and labor relations matters, were
 centralized in Los Angeles, in the offices of the former Western Region.
  Of the 24 engineers in the Pacific-asia Region stationed in Hawaii
 prior to the reorganization, only six engineers remained with the
 Airways Facilities Division in Hawaii thereafter, and they were either
 reassigned to new positions, new supervisors, or new work locations, as
 a result of the reorganization.  The only organizational component which
 the six engineers now have in common is the Region-wide Airways
 Facilities Division, which employs approximately 150 other engineers
 with similar job classifications.  Engineers from Hawaii have been
 detailed to other locations within the Western-Pacific Region and vice
 versa.  The only working condition which is apparently unique to the
 engineers represented by AFGE is their geographical location in Hawaii.
 
    In view of the foregoing, the Authority finds that the unit of
 professional employees in the former Pacific-Asia Region represented by
 the AFGE is no longer appropriate for exclusive recognition under
 section 7112(a)(1) of the Statute inasmuch as the six remaining
 professional employees in that unit do not share a clear and
 identifiable community of interest separate and distinct from the other
 150 professional employees of the Western-Pacific Region.  See
 Mississippi National Guard Mates Shop, Camp Shelby, Mississippi, 12 FLRA
 No. 117 (1983);  Providence Veterans Administration Medical Center,
 Davis Park, Providence, Rhode Island, 11 FLRA No. 44 (1983);  Department
 of the Navy, Navy Publications and Printing Office, Vallejo, California,
 10 FLRA No. 108 (1982).  Accordingly, as the unit is no longer
 appropriate, the Authority finds that the Activity/Petitioner is under
 no obligation to recognize the AFGE as the exclusive representative of
 the employees involved.  See Department of the Navy, Naval Civilian
 Personnel Command, Pacific Field Division, 8 FLRA No. 113 (1982).
 
                                   ORDER
 
    IT IS ORDERED that the petition in Case No. 8-RA-20001 challenging
 the continued appropriateness of a unit of all professional employees in
 the Airways Facilities Division, Pacific-Asia Region, Federal Aviation
 Administration, for which the American Federation of Government
 Employees, Local 2555, AFL-CIO, was certified on January 31, 1979, be,
 and it hereby is, granted.  Issued, Washington, D.C., May 8, 1984
                                       Barbara J. mahone, Chairman
                                       Ronald W. Haughton, Member
                                       Henry B. Frazier III, Member
                                       FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 --------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
 
 
    /1/ 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.