U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Federal Labor Relations Authority

This case concerns the question of whether the Immigration and Naturalization Service is required to bargain with the employees’ union over the type of trousers that may be worn as a part of the official service uniform. We hold that the designation of the components of the official uniform is a management right preserved to the employing agency by the applicable federal statute.

I.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (the “INS”) seeks review of an order by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (the “Authority”) arising under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Act (the “FSLMRA”), 5 U.S.C. §§ 7101-7135 (1982 & Supp. IV 1986). The Authority ordered the INS to bargain over a decision to alter the practice of allowing border patrol agents on rough duty in the San *637 Diego sector to wear green, levi-styled jeans instead of the INS’s standard, green, drill uniform trousers. The union for the border patrol agents, the American Federation of Government Employees (the “union”), has intervened, and the Authority has moved for enforcement of the order. Our jurisdiction rests on 5 U.S.C. § 7123 (c) (1982). The arbitrary and capricious standard of the Administrative…