Appalachian Electric Power Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 31, 1950

91 N.L.R.B. 1376 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of APPALACHIAN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY, EMPLOYER
and LOCAL UNION 1119, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELEC-
TRICAL WORKERS, AFL, PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 9-RC-884. and 9-RC-903.-Decided October 3111,950
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before Seymour Goldstein, 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
these cases to a three-member panel [Members Houston, Reynolds,
and Styles].
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section
9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks to include surveying crews and meter readers
in its existing district unit of production and maintenance workers in
the Employer's Huntington, West Virginia, District, or, in the alterna-
tive, to represent surveying crews or meter readers, or both, in a sepa-
rate appropriate unit or in separate appropriate units.' The Em-
ployer, alleging that surveying crews are clerical or technical em-
ployees and that meter readers are clerical employees, contends that,
under established Board policy, (1) neither category should be in-
cluded in the existing production and maintenance unit, and (2)
neither category may constitute a separate appropriate unit apart
from other like employees at this time.
1 Case No. 9-RC-884 relates to surveying crews ; Case No. 9-RC-903, to meter readers.
91 NLRB No. 214.
1376
APPALACHIAN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY 1377
The Employer, with its principal office at Roanoke, Virginia, is
engaged in the production, transmission, and distribution of electric
power in the States of Virginia and West Virginia. The Employer
divides its operations into 4 divisions, consisting of 13 districts. Only
the Huntington District is involved in this proceeding. In its Hunt-
ington District, the Employer has broken down its operations into
numerous sections and units, concentrated in 6 main sectors under the
general supervision of the district manager : personnel, billing, ac-
counting, commercial, operating, and Kenova plant.
. In an earlier representation proceeding,2 the Board found that all
employees of the Employer in its Huntington District, including the
Kenova generating plant and certain specified categories in the trans-
portation department, but excluding, among other categories, clerical,
accounting, professional, and technical employees, constituted an ap-
propriate unit, and on September 8, 1943, certified Local Union No.
B-1119, chartered by the Petitioner's International, as the exclusive.
bargaining representative of these employees. The Employer and
locals of the petitioning International have since entered into con-
tracts covering employees in this unit. These contracts did not include
surveying crews or meter readers.
Surveying crews, of which there are two in the Huntington District,
work in the technical section of the Employer's operating sector under
the over-all supervision of the district supervising engineer. En-
gineers, inspectors, and draftsmen are also part of this section. ' Sur-
veying crews are primarily engaged in making outside surveys for the
location of power lines. They do virtually all their work away from
the Employer's plant, and generally do not work in close contact with
plant production and maintenance employees. A typical surveying
crew consists of a chief of party, a district instrument man, two rod-
men, and one, two, or three axmen. The chief of party is in charge
of the crew. The district instrument man surveys sites. The rod-
man, with the aid of instruments, indicates to the district instrument
man the lines to-be surveyed. The district instrument man and the
rodnian are skilled employees. The axman clears the ground, so that
the district instrument man may see the rodman. The Employer's
usual policy is to promote axmen to rodmen, rodmen to district instru-
ment men, and district instrument men to chiefs of parties, and to
promote all these workers to other jobs in the technical section of the
operating sector.3 There is virtually no interchange between survey-
ing crews and employees in the established bargaining unit. En-
2 The Appalachian Electric Power Company, 51 NLRB 861.
3 Although the Employer has promoted axmen to jobs in the bargaining unit, there have
been no such promotions of rodmen or district instrument men.
1378 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
gineers and draftsmen in the technical section occasionally go into the
field. Upon the entire record, we find that district instrument men
and rodmen are technical employees 4
Meter readers, of whom there are approximately 10 in the Hunting-
ton District, work in the meter reading section 5 of the accounting
sector under the over-all supervision of the local office manager and
under the immediate supervision of a head meter reader. Meter
readers read electric meters, subtract previous from current readings
in books provided by the Employer, report back to the accounting
sector at the end of the working day, check their books, and bring to
the attention of their supervisors conditions noted during the day
and requiring repair. Upon the entire record, we find that the meter
readers involved herein are primarily.clerical employees.6
Because we have found that district instrument men and rodmen
are technical employees and meter readers are clerical employees, we
may not, under established Board policy, include any of these cate-
gories in the Petitioner's existing production and maintenance unit,.
from which other technical and clerical employees, respectively, are
excluded.' No special factors appear which would warrant a devia-
tion from our policy.
There is no evidence in the record that the surveying crews or the
meter readers sought by the Petitioner are craftsmen, nor do they
constitute separate departments. The parties have not previously
bargained for surveying crews or meter readers. We therefore find
that surveying crews and meter readers may not constitute separate
appropriate units.s
Under these circumstances, we shall dismiss the petitions in these
cases.
ORDER
Upon the entire record in these cases, the National Labor Relations
Board hereby orders that the petitions be, and they hereby are,
dismissed.
4 Cf. Buckeye Rural Electric Co-Operative, Inc., 88 NLRB 196 , and Welding Shipyards,
Inc., 81 NLRB 936.
S There are no other employees in the meter reading section.
6 The Connecticut Power Company , 88 NLRB 653.
7 Monsanto Chemical Company, Mound Laboratory, 89 NLRB 1478.
1 Cf. Illinois Electric & Gas Company, 82 NLRB 1420.