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57 FLRA No. 49
Dept. of The Navy, Naval Computer And Telecommunications Area Master Station-Atlantic Base Level Communications Dept., Regional Operations Division, Norfolk, Virginia Base Communications Office-Mechanicsburg
and AFGE, Local 1156, AFL-CIO, Case No BN-RP-80041 (Decided June 1, 2001)
The petition here sought to clarify that the Union remained the exclusive representative of a separate unit of four employees who were transferred to another organization. The Regional Director initially found that the four employees were an appropriate unit, and that the Agency was the successor employer. On review, the Authority remanded the case to the Regional Director with instructions to, among other things, consider all three factors set forth in section 7112(a) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute to determine whether the transferred employees constituted an appropriate unit. In his Decision on Remand, the Acting Regional Director concluded that the petitioned for employees did not constitute an appropriate unit. Accordingly, he determined that the Agency could not be a successor employer, and dismissed the petition.
After applying the Authority's criteria to determine whether the unit is appropriate, the Authority concluded that the Union did not establish that the Acting Regional Director erred in concluding that the petitioned-for unit would not promote effective dealings between the Agency and the Union. The Authority noted that the "effective dealings" criterion pertains to the relationship between management and the exclusive representative selected by the proposed unit. Because the Authority found that the petitioned-for unit would not promote effective dealings, and because all three criteria for determining whether a unit is appropriate under § 7112(a) must be met, it denied the Union's application for review. In doing so, it did not address -- or adopt -- the Acting Regional Director's conclusions regarding community of interest and efficiency of operations, or the remaining successorship factors.