Akron Cablevision

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 9, 1971

191 N.L.R.B. 4 (N.L.R.B. 1971)

4 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Akron Telerama, Inc. d/b/a Akron Cablevision and
International Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauf-
feurs , Warehousemen and Helpers of America, Lo-
cal No. 497, Petitioner. Case 8-RC-8107
June 9, 1971
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
BY MEMBERS FANNING, JENKINS, AND KENNEDY
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing
was held before Hearing Officer Donald A. Knowlton.
Thereafter, pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations and
Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended, and by
direction of the Regional Director for Region 8, this
case was transferred to the National Labor Relations
Board for decision. A brief has been timely filed by the
Intervenor.'
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its powers
in connection with this case to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rulings
made at the hearing and finds that they are free from
prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the Act and it will effectuate the purposes
of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The parties stipulated that the Petitioner and In-
tervenor are labor organizations within the meaning of
the Act, and we so find.
3. The Intervenor contends that the recognition
agreement it executed with the Employer on October
1, 1970, in contemplation of later bargaining should be
construed as barring the petition, and therefore no
question concerning representation is raised by the pe-
tition. The agreement entered into by the Intervenor
and Employer is not a complete collective-bargaining
contract; for example, it does not contain provisions
which regulate the employees' wages, hours, or condi-
tions of employment, and as such will not be a bar to
the petition.2
Nor may the recognition agreement be considered a
bar within the Keller Plastics principle.' Unlike the
cases in which that principle has been applied, it does
not affirmatively appear in this case that the Employer
extended recognition to the Intervenor in good faith on
the basis of a previously demonstrated showing of
majority at a time when only the Intervenor was en-
Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO.
Sound Contractors Association, 162 NLRB 364, 365
' 157 NLRB 583
gaged in organizing its employees.' Accordingly, we
find that a question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain employees of the Em-
ployer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6)
and (7) of the Act.
4. The petition herein seeks a unit of all employees
excluding office clerical employees, plant clerical em-
ployees, salesmen, confidential employees, guards,
supervisors and professionals as defined in the Act. The
Intervenor seeks a unit of all employees including the
office clericals, plant clericals, and salesmen. The Em-
ployer seeks a unit of all employees incuding the office
clericals and plant clericals, but does not take a position
as to the salesmen.
For the reasons enumerated below, we find that the
appropriate unit consists of all employees excluding
office clerical employees, salesmen, confidential em-
ployees, professionals, guards and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
The Employer is engaged in the operation of a cable
television system in Akron, Ohio, by which it transmits
television signals by cable from a master antenna to its
customers. The employees are classified into four divi-
sions: plant, plant clerical, office clerical, and sales. The
parties stipulated that all plant personnel which in-
cludes the job categories of maintenance, technical bal-
ance, installation, support engineer group, splicing,
driving, utility, utility cordinating, drafting and ware-
housemen, are to be included in the unit. The plant
personnel build and maintain the electrical system
which carries the television signals from the Em-
ployer's antenna through the city's streets on utility
poles and into the customer's home.
Working closely with the plant personnel is the staff
of nine clerical employees designated plant clerical by
the Employer and the three schedulers designated sales
employees by the Employer. The plant clericals' job
functions include work orders, dispatching, inventory
control, worksheets, equipment inventory, and work
reports. The schedulers, while under the supervision of
the sales manager, are in fact plant clericals; their job
is scheduling the installers' visits to the customers'
homes after the purchase of the service from the sales-
men. The plant clericals' interests are closely allied
with those of the plant personnel and we shall include
them in the unit.
The Intervenor relied on Dale's Super Valu, Inc., 181 NLRB 98. In that
case the intervening union presented authorization cards to the employer
which bore the signatures of a majority of the employees sought in the unit
and requested recognition After examining the cards, recognizing the signa-
tures, and believing that the union represented a majority of its employees,
the employer signed a recognition agreement
Here the Employer never received authorization cards or any evidence
of membership from the Intervenor or questioned the Union to determine
if it had authority from a majority of the employees
191 NLRB No. 7
AKRON CABLEVISION
The sales employees are door-to-door salesmen
working on a commission basis. They begin to canvass
an area when the plant personnel have completed the
street wiring and the system is ready for installation
into the homes of potential customers. The salesmen
have no interests in common with the unit and we shall
exclude them.
The office clerical staff includes all clerical employees
except those designated plant clerical; their function is
secretarial and payroll. Office clericals have no interests
in common with the unit and we shall exclude them.
There remains for consideration the status of George
Oravecz and William Reagon whom the Petitioner
would exclude from the appropriate unit as super-
visors. Oravecz installs cable from the street into the
customer's home and Reagon is a crew leader who
directs a crew which consists of himself and one other
employee. The parties stipulated that crew leaders were
not supervisors and are included in the unit. We find
that Oravecz and Reagon are not supervisors within
the meaning of the Act and shall include them in the
unit.
5
We find that the following unit is appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of
Section 9(b) of the Act:
All employees excluding office clerical em-
ployees, salesmen , confidential employees, profes-
sionals , guards and supervisors as defined in the
Act.
[Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
5 In order to assure that all eligible voters may have the opportunity to
be informed of the issues in the exercise of their statutory right to vote, all
parties to the election should have access to a list of voters and their ad-
dresses which maybe used to communicate with them. Excelsior Underwear
Inc, 156 NLRB 1236; N.L.R.B. v. Wyman-Gordon Co., 394 U.S 759.
Accordingly, it is hereby directed that an election eligibility list, containing
the names and addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the
Employer with the Regional Director for Region 8 within 7 days of the date
of this Decision and Direction of Election . The Regional Director shall
make the list available to all parties to the election . No extension of time
to file this list shall be granted by the Regional Director except in extraordi-
nary circumstances. Failure to comply with this requirement shall be
grounds for setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed.