Union: NASA Ames Dispute Involved ‘Verbal Assault’ and Threats

A P3 Navy aircraft with Hangar One at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. (Copyright 2009: Douglas Messier)

There was interesting story recently in the Mountain View Voice about how NASA Ames’ management allegedly handles criticism. It seems that the Ames Federal Employees Union filed a complaint last year alleging verbal assault by the center’s second ranking officer:

It turns out that the “unfair labor practice” involved [Center Director Pete] Worden himself, along with his number two, deputy director Lewis Braxton III. According to documents filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority, Braxton is alleged to have verbally “assaulted” AFEU president Leland Stone while Worden was present at an August 2009 meeting. The incident took place immediately after Stone sent an e-mail to union members which disparaged Ames management and boasted about the union’s accomplishments.

The e-mail said to have incited the conflict read, in part, that “while Ames management is all a-twitter with the International Space University, Singularity University, new green office building construction, Zeppelins, new cafes in the research park, cheap beer at the golf course, and other peripheral activities, your union has prioritized its efforts on core issues crucial for maintaining Ames as a premiere R&D center and NASA as America’s aerospace agency.”

According to the charge filed by the AFEU, the meeting about those remarks flared up to the point that “Mr. Braxton charged across the room, lunged at Dr. Stone, and proceeded to scream and yell at him at the top of his lungs with his face within about 1 inch of Dr. Stone’s face while shaking his finger in Dr. Stone’s face about 1 inch from his eye. The assault lasted about half a minute.”

The description goes on to say that director Worden watched and said nothing during Braxton’s alleged tirade, but allegedly joined Braxton in making “vague verbal threats that the Union could expect hostile treatment if we did not amend certain statements in the e-mail.”

The Voice reports that the matter has since been settled after an investigation by the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The settlement was a center-wide email from Worden that “read in part that ‘intimidation, threat, or coercion’ of union members is not allowed under the union’s labor agreement, including ‘conferring any benefit (such as appointment, promotion, compensation, settlement, or redress), or effecting or threatening to effect any reprisal (such as deprivation of appointment, promotion, or compensation).'”

In interviews with The Voice, both sides declared the matter resolved and did their best to put the matter behind them.

There have been past problems at the center in terms of dissent. Back in 2007, NASA conducted a Culture Survey that measured attitudes across the space agency, which was then run by Mike Griffin. The survey showed low marks at the time for management’s credibility and tolerance of dissent. Scores were especially low at NASA Ames, where Worden had been appointed center director in April 2006.

Only 51 percent of the 5,408 employees who responded to the survey answered “Yes” to the statement: “I can rely on management to be honest.” When broken down by field center, only 36 percent of employees surveyed at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., found management to be honest. This was followed by NASA Glenn in Cleveland (39 percent) and NASA Headquarters in Washington (46 percent). The highest figure was at Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston (62 percent).

NASA Ames under Administrator S. Pete Worden consistently scored at or near the bottom of a number of questions, including whether management encourages innovation, communicates on a timely basis, develops leaders effectively, and fosters an environment where employees feel free to raise dissenting opinions without fear that their careers will suffer. NASA Headquarters and NASA Glenn also had low scores in these areas.

A NASA press release from March 2008 described the survey methodology:

The survey was conducted online by the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) from September 4 until October 30, 2007. An invitation to participate in this survey was sent to all NASA civil service employees that included an electronic link to the survey web site and a password to access the survey. One person requested and was sent a paper version of the survey in lieu of the standard web survey.

Several subsequent reminder emails and an extended survey period were used in an effort to increase the response rate. Approximately 30% (5408 out of 18152) of NASA employees responded during that time. The graphs presented in Appendix C depict the demographic make-up of both the NASA population as well as the sample of that population who responded to the survey. Appendix D provides detailed information on how the data was weighted using the demographic make-up of the sample.

I haven’t been able to determine whether a more recent NASA Culture Survey exists. Anyone out there know? It would be interesting to compare results to see if things have changed at all over the last three years.