American Broadcasting Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 15, 1951

97 N.L.R.B. 3 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC. 3
contract, and by the fact that its terms were then put into effect on
March 19, 1951, its effective date. The ceremony on March 29, 1951,
was merely in the nature of a reexecution of the document in a more
legible and convenient form. In our opinion, therefore, on March
15, there existed an explicit, comprehensive, written and signed record
of the entire understanding between the parties which stabilized
bargaining relations for the employees concerned. Accordingly, the
contract is a bar to the petition in this proceeding .5
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed without prejudice.
5 See The Carborundum Company, 78 NLRB 91: Armour & Company, 66 NLRB 209 Cf.
Roddas Plywood & Door Company, Inc, 84 NLRB 309.
AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANY, INC. and INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE
OF THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES AND MOVING PICTURE MACHINE
OPERATORS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA , AFL, PETITIONER.
Case No. 2-IBC-3555. November 15, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before I. L. Broadwin,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection
with this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and
Members Reynolds and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner contends that all sound effect technicians and ap-
prentices of the Employer's New York City operations, excluding
sound effects technicians doing recording of transcriptions, managers,
assistant managers, guards, watchmen, and supervisors as defined in
the Act, constitute an appropriate unit. The Intervenor (National
Association of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians, CIO) contends
97 NLRB No. 4.
4 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
that the employees sought by the Petitioner should be merged into an
existing Nation-wide unit of engineering employees; or that a Nation-
wide group of sound effect employees is the proper unit. The Em-
ployer's position is substantially in accord with that of the Petitioner.
The Employer is engaged in radio and television broadcasting and
operates stations in New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles,
and San Francisco. Since 1945, the sound effect technicians have been
represented by the Intervenor and its predecessor as a separate bar-
gaining unit, the last contract being dated from May 1, 1950, to Octo-
ber 31, 1951.1 Since 1944, under a series of separate contracts, the
Intervenor has represented the Employer's engineering employees-on-
a Nation-wide basis.2
The primary functions of 'the sound effects employees, who are only
employed in the New York City station, is to create sound, other than
voice, speech, and music, which is necessary to achieve realism in the
production of radio and television programs. They perform from
prepared scripts in front of microphones, as do actors, singers, and
musicians. The sound effects personnel constitutes a division of the
program department, which is concerned with the artistic quality of
broadcasts. The engineering department, whose employees are now
represented by the Intervenor in a Nation-wide unit, is responsible
for the transmission of the artistic effects through the electronic proc-
ess. There is no interchange of functions or employees between the
sound effects division and the engineering department.
In view of the past bargaining history of the sound effects tech-
nicians as a separate unit and the dissimilarity of their duties as com-
pared to the engineers, we find no merit in the Intervenor's first con-
tention. As the Employer does not have sound effects employees in
any of its other stations, we see no basis for any further consideration
of the Intervenor's alternative request for a Nation-wide unit. In
view of the foregoing, and on the basis of the entire record, we find
that all sound effects technicians and apprentices of the Employer's
sound effects division of the program department in New York City,
excluding sound effects technicians doing recording of transcriptions,
managers, assistant managers, guards, watchmen, and supervisors as
defined in the Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
None of the parties contends that the contract is a bar to this proceeding
s See National Broadcasting Company, Inc., and Blue Network Company , Inc., 59 NLRB
478. The Employer herein is the successor to the latter -named Company.