Defense Mapping Agency, Kansas City Office and American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2786 (Authority decision, September 19, 1983)

Final FLRA representation decision. The Authority clarified the bargaining unit in this decision. This appropriate-unit determination is excluded from the 60-day judicial-review provision by 5 U.S.C. § 7123(a)(2).

Plain-English summary

The Defense Mapping Agency and AFGE Local 2786 agreed to update the bargaining unit description to track statutory exclusions. The agency also sought to exclude security clerk David Manspeaker. The Authority found that he controlled access to highly classified material, transported it, and guarded the repository, so his work directly affected national security. It amended the unit description and excluded his position. The outcome is classified as other because this was an original unit petition.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: 5 U.S.C. § 7112(b)(6).
• Outcome: Unit description amended and security clerk position excluded.
• Key point: Direct control and protection of highly classified material triggered the national security exclusion.

Full text (FLRA public release)

[ v13 p52 ]

13:0052(10)CU

The decision of the Authority follows:

13 FLRA No. 10

DEFENSE MAPPING AGENCY,
AEROSPACE CENTER, KANSAS CITY
OFFICE, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
Activity/Petitioner

and

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 2786, AFL-CIO
Labor Organization

Case No. 7-CU-39

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 hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.

Upon the entire record in this case, including the parties' contentions, the Authority finds: The American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2786, AFL-CIO (the Union), was recognized in 1969 as the exclusive representative for a unit of all employees in the Defense Mapping Agency, Aerospace Center, Kansas City Office, Kansas City, Missouri (the Activity/Petitioner), excluding all management officials, employees engaged in personnel work in other than a purely clerical capacity, confidential employees and supervisors. The Activity's petition seeks to amend the description of the recognized unit to exclude "all management officials, supervisors, and employees described in 5 U.S.C. 7112(b)(2), (3), (4), (6) and (7)" from the existing unit of all employees in the Defense Mapping Agency, Aerospace Center, Kansas City Office. The parties stipulated that the proposed amendment to the unit description is solely for the purpose of technical conformance with the standard statutory exclusions from bargaining units required by the Statute, and would not otherwise alter the character or scope of the unit. Noting that the proposed amendment of the unit description is consistent with the exclusions from recognized units set forth in the Statute, and in view of the parties' agreement, the Authority shall order that the description of the unit herein be amended as sought.

The petition also seeks to clarify the unit eligibility of David Manspeaker, Security Clerk (Typing) GS-303-05, in the Activity's Security Office. The Activity contends that Manspeaker should be excluded from the unit on the ground that he is engaged in security work which directly affects national security within the meaning of section 7112(b)(6) of the Statute. /1/ The Union opposes such exclusion.

The Defense Mapping Agency, Aerospace Center (DMAAC), Kansas City Office is a field office of DMAAC, a part of the Department of Defense which has headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. The mission of the Kansas City Office of DMAAC is to compile sensitive information such as air target charts for the Strategic Air Command and aeronautical charts and digital data for computerization to be used for other defense purposes, the compromise of which would cause grave national security implications. The Security Office is a detachment of a special security office at DMAAC headquarters in St. Louis. It provides document and personnel security as well as facility security to the Activity.

As a security clerk, Manspeaker has a "critical sensitive" classification in the Security Office. He acts as the custodian of the classified documents repository which requires his participation in the receipt and logging in of all classified material up to and including top secret classification. Manspeaker controls access to classified material and to the secure area of the repository, authorizing access only after proper security clearance is provided in conformance with existing security guidelines and procedures. Manspeaker's other duties involve acting as a courier of highly classified material, assisting in the destruction of classified material according to specific instructions, and maintaining a reference library of classified documents. In addition, Manspeaker assists a superior during periodic inspections of the Activity's facility for security violations. At the hearing, the parties stipulated that special security procedures used by Manspeaker in his duties involving the protection of classified material were themselves classified and therefore were not released by the Activity.

As the record shows that David Manspeaker, Security Clerk (Typing) GS-303-05, handles, controls access to, destroys, transports and protects highly classified information which directly affects national security, the Authority finds that he should be excluded from the recognized unit pursuant to section 7112(b)(6) of the Statute. See United States Department of the Navy, U.S. Naval Station, Panama, 7 FLRA No. 74, at 495 (1981). /2/

ORDER

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the unit sought to be amended herein for which the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2786, AFL-CIO, was recognized as the exclusive representative in 1969, be amended to read as follows: Included: All employees in the Defense Mapping Agency, Aerospace Center, Kansas City Office. Excluded: All management officials, supervisors, and employees described in section 7112(b)(2), (3), (4), (6) and (7) of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the unit sought to be clarified herein be clarified by excluding from said unit the position Security Clerk (Typing), GS-303-05. Issued, Washington, D.C., September 19, 1983 Barbara J. Mahone, Chairman Ronald W. Haughton, Member Henry B. Frazier III, Member FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY

--------------- FOOTNOTES$ ---------------

/1/ Section 7112(b)(6) provides:

Sec. 7112. Determination of appropriate units for labor organization representation

. . . .

(b) A unit shall not be determined to be appropriate under this section solely on the basis of the extent to which employees in the proposed unit have organized, nor shall a unit be determined to be appropriate if it includes--

. . . .

(6) any employee engaged in intelligence, counter-intelligence, investigative, or security work which directly affects national security(.)

/2/ Cf. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Operations, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 4 FLRA 644 (1981), wherein the Authority adopted a Judge's decision, in the absence of exceptions, that lower-graded clerk-typists and stenographers in different classification series, were not engaged in security work directly affecting the national security merely because they had access to sensitive information and performed routine clerical duties in a security office.