12:0469(92)UC - Navy, Aviation Supply Office and AFGE Local 1698 -- 1983 FLRAdec RP
[ v12 p469 ]
12:0469(92)UC
The decision of the Authority follows:
12 FLRA No. 92
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY
AVIATION SUPPLY OFFICE
Activity
and
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES,
LOCAL 1698, AFL-CIO
Petitioner
Case No. 2-UC-8
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 American Federation of Government Employees, Local 1698, AFL-CIO
(Union) filed the subject petition seeking to consolidate four units
located at the Department of the Navy, Aviation Supply Office compound
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for which it is the exclusive
representative. The four bargaining units are composed of employees of
four different Activities of the Department of the Navy: Aviation
Supply Office (ASO); Naval Publication and Forms Center (NPFC); Naval
Air Technical Services Facility (NATSF); and Navy International
Logistics Control Office (NAVILCO). /1/ The unit descriptions are set
forth in the appendix. The proposed consolidated unit is described by
the Union as:
All non-professional civilian employees of the Aviation Supply
Office (ASO), Naval Air Technical/Services Facility
(NAVAIRTECHSERVFAC), Navy International Logistics Control Office
(NAVILCO), and nonprofessional general schedule employees of the
Naval Publications and Forms Center (NPFC). Excluded: all wage
grade employees of the Public Works (ASO); all wage grade
employees of the Naval Publications and Forms Center (NPFC);
guards; professional employees, management officials;
supervisors; confidential employees; employees engaged in
personnel work in other than a clerical capacity; employees
engaged in administering the Statute; employees engaged in
intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative or security work
which directly affects national security; employees primarily
engaged in investigative or audit functions affecting the internal
security of the Agency, as described in 5 U.S.C. 7112B 2, 3, 4, 6
and 7.
The Activities oppose the petition on the basis that the proposed
consolidated unit is not appropriate under the provisions of section
7112(a)(1) of the Statute, /2/ because such unit does not ensure a clear
and identifiable community of interest among the employees in the unit,
nor does it promote effective dealings with, and efficiency of the
operations of, the agency involved.
The four Activities involved in the petition are all co-located at a
compound at 700 Robbins Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In
addition, three other Activities are at this compound: Navy
Publications and Printing Service (NPPS); Defense Industrial Supply
Center (DISC); and the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA).
The compound is an area of about three square blocks containing a
series of office buildings and warehouses. ASO is the "host" activity
and the others are, in essence, "tenants." As host, ASO is in control of
all space, indoors and out, which is not specifically assigned to a
tenant. ASO provides protective, custodial and maintenance services, as
well as recreational facilities. In addition, ASO provides personnel
services for the five U.S. Navy organizations at the compound, through
the Consolidated Civilian Personnel Division (CCPD).
In Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 5 FLRA No. 89
(1981), the Authority, in dismissing petitions to consolidate units,
noted that, section 7112(a)(1) of the Statute requires any unit found
appropriate to conform to the three criteria established by that section
and held that these criteria applied as well to unit consolidation
proceedings pursuant to section 7112(d) of the Statute. /3/
With regard to the community of interest criterion set forth in
section 7112(a)(1), 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). In the instant case, the
Authority concludes that the , employees who would be included in the
proposed consolidated units do not share a clear and identifiable
community of interest. Thus, the record establishes that the
organizational components involved herein do not share any significant
degree of commonality or integration of mission. Rather, there is a
wide disparity of missions and functions, as well as command
responsibility among the various Activities involved herein. For
example, the mission of ASO is to procure, manage, distribute and
control spare parts for aircraft weapons systems; the mission of NPFC
is to act as the control point for all Navy publications and forms, and
to be the Authorization Accounting Activity for a number of
installations and activities; the mission of NATSF is to provide
technical services in the development, production and distribution of
aeronautical technical manuals for the maintenance of aircraft weapons
systems; and the mission of NAVILCO is to provide supply and accounting
services to foreign governments pursuant to the Navy's Security
Assistance Program. In addition, the chain of command for each
component is different: NAVILCO is under the command of the Naval
Supply Systems Command; NATSF is under the command of the Naval Air
Systems Command; NPFC is under Naval Supply Systems Command, but also
relies for guidance on the Navy Comptroller; and ASO is under both the
Naval Supply Systems Command and the Naval Air Systems Command.
Further, reflecting the divergence of their respective missions, the
work processes of the components are not integrated or interdependent,
nor do they require coordinated work schedules. The record also
establishes a lack of significant similarity in job classifications,
skills and duties, again reflecting the disparate missions of the
respective Activities involved. The record reveals no interchange of
employees among Activities, and the incidence of permanent transfers
among the Activities primarily reflects the movement of clerical and
secretarial employees. Although certain clerical and secretarial
classifications are common in all the Activities, many job
classifications and skills are specialized and unique and are not shared
by the Activities. Thus, ASO employs packaging and equipment
specialists and weapons logistics specialists; NPFC employs
warehousemen; NAVILCO employs computer systems operators and analysts
who are unique in the entire U.S. Navy; and NATSF employs
micro-photographers, archivists, librarians and engineering
documentation specialists. Finally, although CCPD provides personnel
and labor relations services for each of the Activities, the record
establishes that it performs these duties as an agent on behalf of each
command, deferring to the discretion exercised by each commander, and
does not establish common or uniform policies applicable to all the
Activities.
Based on these factors, the Authority finds that the petitioned for
consolidated unit would not ensure a clear and identifiable community of
interest among the employees involved and will order that the petition
be dismissed. /4/
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition in Case No. 2-UC-8 be, and it
hereby is, dismissed. Issued, Washington, D.C., August 4, 1983
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 Aviation Supply Office,
Phila., Penna.
Excluded: Professional and managerial employees, guards and
supervisors as defined in the Executive Order, and employees engaged in
personnel work in other than a clerical capacity.
Unit No. 2: Included: All graded (Classification Act) employees of
the Naval Publications and Forms Center, Philadelphia, Pa.
Excluded: All managerial executives, supervisors, professional
employees, employees engaged in personnel work in other than a purely
clerical capacity and all non-supervisory guards and detectives of the
Police Branch, Administrative Department.
Unit No. 3: Included: All eligible employees of Naval Air Technical
Services Facility.
Excluded: Management officials, professional employees and
supervisory personnel.
Unit No. 4: Included: All permanent employees of Navy International
Logistics Control Office.
Excluded: Management officials, supervisory personnel, professional
employees, confidential employees, employees engaged in Federal
personnel work in other than a purely clerical capacity and guards as
defined in Executive Order 11491, as amended.
--------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------
/1/ The Union is also the exclusive representative for bargaining
units in two other Activities also located at the compound: the Defense
Industrial Supply Center (DISC), and the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA).
In addition, the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA)
also exclusively represents units in ASO, NPFC and DMA, and the National
Association of Government Employees (NAGE) exclusively represents a unit
in Navy Publications and Printing Service (NPPS), also located in the
compound.
/2/ 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.
/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/ 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, 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);
Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C., 5 FLRA No. 89 (1981),
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.