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55 FLRA No. 155
U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery Center And Fort Bliss, Fort Bliss, Texas and NFFE, Local 2173 and NAGE, Local R14-22, Case No. DA-RO-60006 (Decided September 30, 1999)
The Authority granted the application for review of the Acting Regional Director's (RD) Decision and Order. The Union (NFFE) requested review of the RD's decision dismissing its petition because the RD found that the Agency had unlawfully assisted NFFE in obtaining signatures in violation of section 7102 of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, thus tainting the showing of interest.
The Authority granted review of the RD's decision, under section 2422.17(c)(1) of the Authority's Regulations, based on NFFE's contention that there was an absence of precedent concerning the appropriate standard to apply in determining whether improper agency conduct tainted a union's showing of interest submitted in support of its petition for a representation election. The Authority remanded this case to the RD to determine whether a sufficient untainted showing of interest was gathered by NFFE. If so, the RD shall conduct an election.
The Authority noted that in order to dismiss a representation petition supported by a showing of interest, it would require that any improper conduct on the part of an agency actually have affected the validity of the petition. Put in the context of this case, if after disallowing the signatures gathered as a result of the Agency's improper grant of access to the organizer, the showing of interest was valid, the petition should not be dismissed.
In this case, the Authority found that the record was not sufficient to determine whether, absent the Activity's improper conduct, a valid petition would have been filed. Accordingly, the case was remanded to the RD to make a determination regarding how many employee signatures were obtained as a result of the improper conduct. Specifically, the RD must determine whether, not counting the signatures obtained through improper conduct, NFFE's petition was supported by a sufficient number of signatures.