Bank of America

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 3, 1969

174 N.L.R.B. 298 (N.L.R.B. 1969)

298 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Bank of America , National Trust and Savings
Association ' and Local 17-L Lithographers and
Photoengravers International Union , Petitioner.
Case 20-RC-8087
February 3, 1969
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY MEMBERS FANNING, JENKINS, AND ZAGORIA
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of
the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Earl D.
Brand. Following the hearing, pursuant to Section
102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules
and Regulations and Statements of Procedure,
Series 8, as amended, this case was transferred to
the National Labor Relations Board for decision.
Thereafter, briefs were filed by the Employer and
the Petitioner, which have been duly considered.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National 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 no prejudicial
error. The rulings are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the 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 Petitioner is a labor organization claiming
to represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists
concerning the representation of employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1)
and 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The evidence herein indicates that the
Employer is one of the largest privately-owned
banks in the world, that it operates through
approximately 944 branch banks in the State of
California, and also through branches in various
foreign countries which are not under consideration
here. The Employer employs approximately 32,000
employees and 6,000 officers throughout the State
of California to operate its business, and has a
detailed administrative structure, which includes a
statewide Centralized Services Administration,
divided into northern and southern divisions at San
Francisco and Los Angeles respectively.
The Petitioner seeks a unit of all lithographic and
related production employees in the Design and
Format Control and Reproduction Department of
the northern division of the Purchasing Supplies and
Services Division of the Centralized Services
The Employer ' s name appears as amended at the hearing.
Administration of the Employer, a unit consisting of
approximately 20 employees. In opposition, the
Employer contends that the employees petitioned for
belong to a larger group of office clerical employees,
and that the Board should find an Employerwide
unit appropriate, consisting of approximately 32,000
office clerical employees throughout the State of
California. Alternatively, the Employer contends
that the minimal appropriate unit consists of all
office clerical employees employed in its building at
One South Van Ness Street, San Francisco, Calif.,
which basically includes the northern division of its
Centralized Services Administration and other
related units dependent on the data processing
functions of Centralized Services, consisting of
approximately 2,000 employees. There is no history
of bargaining for any of the Employer's employees.
The Employer argues that its contention that a
bankwide unit is appropriate is supported by the
following factors: (1) the size and importance of the
Bank services to the community and the disastrous
effect that labor disputes would have upon the
community; (2) extensive regulation of the Bank by
public bodies evidencing its public service nature; (3)
the high degree of functional integration; and (4) the
centralization of authority and uniformity of
benefits and working conditions. As evidence of its
importance, the Employer points out that it has
7,000,000 depositors, cashes between 350 and 360
thousand checks daily, accepts approximately
400,000 deposits daily, and has daily money market
operations which total 1.25 billion dollars. The Bank
provides 86 different services to its customers,
including housing loans, which number more than
2,000 per month, and auto and truck financing,
which number thousands per day. The Bank argues
that if it were not able to perform these services, the
impact would be drastic, particularly among the 19
million citizens of California, and that the Bank
would be peculiarly vulnerable fo work stoppages.
Examples of the businesses which would be affected
were cited, such as agricultural producers; small
business men, who depend on the bank for working
capital; municipalities; and businesses for whom the
Bank provides accounting and bookkeeping services,
including payroll services. Finally, the Bank argues
that nothing could be more persuasive than to
imagine seven million depositors unable to draw
upon their funds.
The second factor cited by the Employer to
support its bankwide unit contention, was the
extensive regulation of the bank by the government,
through the following agencies: Comptroller of the
Currency, Federal Reserve Board, National Bank
Examiners, Federal Reserve Bank, and Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation. Among other
things, these agencies set the rate of interest
payable, set limits on the total volume of real estate
loans which can be made and rules for the type and
amount of security required thereon, establish legal
reserve requirements, require that the Bank be
174 NLRB No. 51
BANK OF AMERICA
insured, require that employees be bonded, and
require various reports to be made. All of this, the
Employer argues, shows that the Bank's activities
are strongly affected with the public interest.
For legal authority to support this unit
contention, the Employer argues that the banking
industry is analogous to the public utility industry.
The Employer argues that the underlying premise
for the Board decisions in the public utility cases is
that fragmentation into many bargaining units
would be disastrous in such basic service industries.
It is the Employer's opinion that "T sere are very
few utilities or other enterprises which are so
essential as the Bank to so many people in the
community at large."
We `disagree with the Employer's contention that
the appropriate collective bargaining unit for the
banking industry should be the bankwide unit. The
Employer's argument in support of this contention,
that the banking industry is affected with the public
interest in the same manner as the public utilities
industry, is not persuasive. In the first place, there is
an essential difference between the banking industry
and the public utility industry, in that a public
utility, unlike a bank, has a virtual monopoly in a
given geographic area. Moreover, even in the public
utility industry, although an overall unit might be
appropriate, it is not the only appropriate unit and
does not preclude a finding that a unit which is
lesser in scope might also be appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining, where traditional
criteria to support such a unit are present.
The Employer also contends that the
minimum-sized appropriate unit is all the office
clerical employees working at the Employer's Van
Ness Avenue building in San Francisco. Such a unit
would basically include all the employees working in
the northern division of the Centralized Services
Administration, with the addition of certain
departments which are dependent upon the data
processing functions of the Centralized Services
Administration, a unit of approximately 2,000
employees. It is the Employer's opinion that this
unit is appropriate because of the community of
interests and nature of contacts among the
employees, together with the operational
centralization and functional integration of the
Centrallized Services, as well as the entire Bank.
Centralized Services provides services and supplies
and supporting operations to branches,
headquarters, and administration. Its main function
is to provide accounting, bookkeeping, and other
record processing services to the Bank, through the
use of its data processing facilities. In charge of the
statewide operations is a Vice President, Mr.
Gienapp. Under him is Mr. Swenson, Vice President
for the northern division, who in turn has numerous
persons reporting to him including Mr. Barber,
Assistant Cashier in charge of the Design and
Formal and Reproduction department, the unit
which is petitioned for herein.
299
The departments included in the Centralized
Services Administration are: Data Processing,
Mechanical, Telephone, Central Account Analysis,
Cash Vault, Central Office, Telegraph, Real Estate
Tax, Addressograph, Purchasing, Central Check
Control, Design and Format Control and
Reproduction, Stationery & Supplies, Vault
Protective Equipment, Furniture Maintenance, and
Record Storage Center. In addition to these
departments, the other departments in the Van Ness
Building, which the Employer would include in its
minimum unit, are: Stock Transfer, Business Service
Center, Systems and Equipment Research,
Accounting, Standard Practice Manual, Audit and
Inspection, Loss Investigation, Real Estate Loan
Service Center, Program Standards and Control,
Management Sciences, Premises, Payroll, and the
BankAmericard Center, which is scheduled to move
into the building when certain other sections, not
mentioned above, move out. The Employer contends
that the employees employed in these sections,
including the employees petitioned for herein,
constitute a minimum sized appropriate unit of
office clerical employees, arguing that this group has
identical working conditions and benefits, and
constant contact with each other.
The Petitioner seeks a unit of employees in the
Employer's Design and Format Control and
Reproduction Department.2 This department is
headed by an Assistant Cashier, Mr. Barber. Under
him is a Forms Control Officer, Mr. Fleming, and a
Consultant in Graphic Arts, Mr. Snell, both of
whom the record reveals to be officers of the Bank.
In addition to these, there is an Operations
Assistant, Jose Roybal, in the Reproduction section,
and an Assistant to the Head, Rose Meillon, in the
Design and Format section. The other employees in
the Design and Format section are classified as:
Utility (1), Specification writer (1), Requisition
processor (1), Forms Control Officer's assistant (1),
and Forms designer (3). The other employees in the
Reproduction section are classified as: Reproduction
machine operator-A (6), Reproduction machine
operator-B (3), Platemaker (1), Utility operator (1),
and Binde'ryman (1).
The Design and Format Control section writes
specifications for every item that is purchased by the
Bank, and assists other departments of the Bank in
preparing items to be printed. Any printing work
which is required by any department of the Bank is
supposed to come through this section, at which
point the Consultant in graphic arts, Mr. Snell,
makes the determination whether an item is to be
printed by the Bank, or whether it is to be done
outside the Bank. In either case-this section prepares
a finished copy of the item to be reproduced. This
work would include the designing of forms used by
the various departments of the Bank, as well as
it appears from the record that this is one department, although the
sections are at times referred to separately
300 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
assisting other departments in designing charts,
graphs, training manuals, etc. The equipment used
in the designing includes a waxer, a headliner, a
light table, and a number of varitypers.
The Reproduction section does short run
reproductions, circulars, and confidential material,
using either a xerox copier or a multilith machine.
To do this work the Employer has a self-service
room, which contains three xerox copiers for use by
employees from other departments to make up to
five copies. If more than five copies are needed, a
reproduction section employee working in the
self-service room does the work on a multilith
machine in that room. The Employer has a similar
room, containing a xerox copier and a multilith
machine, located at the Employer's Headquarters
building, where two reproduction section employees
work. When more than 50 copies of an item are
needed, the work is done in the reproduction room.
This room contains Ozalid and Bruning
platemakers, xerox and photo direct cameras, a
number of multilith machines, a seldom used
multigraph machine, a paper cutter, and collators.
The multilith machines in use, which operate on
an offset principle, are of the type found both in
business offices and printing shops. However, the
reproduction section is the only section of the Bank
using such machines. The plates used in this process
are either paper or metal, and are prepared by the
employees in the reproduction section. All of the
employer's multilith machines are single color
presses, although multicolor work is done, by
running the material through the press more than
once. In such cases, a separate plate is made for
each color used.
The Employer has no apprentice or formal
training program to qualify an individual for
multilith machine operation, and new employees are
required to have no special training, experience, or
qualifications. However, the Employer has two
classes of operators, "A" and "B." The record
reveals that a B-operator is someone who is starting
out and an A-operator is one who has been there
and is fairly competent. To progress from
B-operator to A-operator could take from 6 months
to 6 years, and one employee, considered as good by
the Employer, was expected to progress to
A-operator in about 2 years.
Witnesses for the Employer testified that the
operation of these machines required little or no
skill, that few, if any, adjustments were necessary
when running the machine, and that the work
produced was "quick and dirty" work of low
quality. However, the testimony of the employees
shows that, in fact, some skill is necessary,
especially when doing multicolor work; that
adjustments are made by the operators because of
temperature and humidity changes, differences in
paper and plate thickness, and the use of different
inks, and that the Employer continually stresses that
the work must be of high quality, especially where
the work is destined for public usage.
In its brief, the Employer cites the decision of the
Board in General Motors Corporation, GM
Photographic Engineering Center, 143 NLRB 647,
in support of its contention that the unit petitioned
for herein is inappropriate. We find that case
factually distinguishable from the case herein.' In
that case, the employees petitioned for included only
part of the employees working in a multilith and
mimeograph department, which itself was only one
of four departments in the Photographic
Engineering Center engaged in reproduction
activities. Only other staffs and divisions of GM
used the items reproduced, whereas the items
reproduced by the Bank are regularly used by the
public. Further, unlike the GM case, the
reproduction section is the only section of the Bank
where multilith machines are found, and a certain
amount of skill is required of the Bank's
reproduction employees to operate these machines
to produce the type of quality work which the Bank
requires. In addition to the skills required of the
bank's employees in the actual printing, employees
in the Reproduction section are also skilled in
platemaking, both by means of copy camera to
make film negatives," from which the plate is then
made, and also by means of xerox and bruning
platemaking equipment. Finally, although the Bank
has no apprenticeship or formal training program, it
appears that an informal training period does exist,
from the fact that a good employee does not
progress to the position of multilith operator for a
period of 2 years. The existence of such an informal
training period denotes the requirement of
considerable skill to perform the work required.
Accordingly, we find that the employees
petitioned for herein constitute a lithographic
process unit," similar to other units of the same type
which we have found appropriate in the past. We
therefore find that these employees constitute an
appropriate unit separate from the other employees
whom the Employer contends should be considered
as the minimum sized appropriate unit.
There remains for consideration certain inclusions
and exclusions. The Petitioner would exclude the
head of the department, Mr. Barber, the Forms
Control Officer, Mr. Fleming, the Consultant in
Graphic Arts, Mr. Snell, and the Operations
Assistant, Mr. Roybal, as supervisory or managerial
employees.
The record reveals that Mr. Barber, Mr. Fleming,
and Mr. Snell, are all officers of the Bank, and as
such have a designated general authority to bind the
Bank by their signature, whereas the signing
authority of designated nonofficer employees is
limited. Mr. Barber is the overall supervisor for the
'We also find Young & Selden Co., Division of Diebold, Inc, 147
NLRB 67, cited by the Employer, distinguishable , since the work being
done here , by the employees of the Bank , is substantially different from the
work done by the employees in that case
"See, e.g. , The Standard Printing Co, Inc, 80 NLRB 338
BANK OF AMERICA
Design and Format Control and Reproduction
Department, and exercises the usual indicia of
supervisory authority, including the assigning of
work, the disciplining of employees, and the
recommending of promotions. As to Mr. Fleming
and Mr. Snell, the record shows that their potential
salary is approximately 50 percent greater than the
potential of the highest paid unit employee; and that
they are both in the same general job classification,
making, their immediate supervisor the same as Mr.
Barber's. Mr. Barber will be excluded from the unit
found appropriate herein as a supervisor, and
Messrs. Fleming and Snell as managerial employees.
The parties stipulated that Mr. Roybal is a
supervisor, and although the record indicates that he
does not have the power to hire and fire employees,
it does show that he possesses other indicia of
supervisory authority. We will therefore accept the
stipulation of the parties, and exclude the
Operations Assistant, Mr. Roybal, from the unit.
The Petitioner contends that the Assistant to the
Head, Rose Meillon, is not a supervisor, and should
be included in the unit. The record shows that she
oversees the other forms designers to some extent,
but that she does not possess the authority to hire or
fire, and that if she has a problem, she discusses it
with either Mr. Snell or Mr. Barber, who then take
action. Since we are unable to determine from the
record whether this employee in fact exercises
supervisory authority, we will allow her to vote
subject to challenge.
The Petitioner also contends that the two
employees who work in the service room at the
Employer's Headquarters building should be
included in the unit. The record shows that these
employees operate the same type of equipment as
the employees in the reproduction section, and that
the work which they do in the Headquarter's
building is rotated among the employees in the
reproduction section. We will therefore include them
in the unit.
'An election eligibility list, containing the names and addresses of all the
eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer with the Regional Director
301
Finally, the Petitioner would exclude as office
clericals the employees in the following
classifications: utility, specification writer,
'requisition processor, and forms control officer's
assistant. Although these employees are listed in an
Employer's exhibit as being a part of the Design and
Format Control Staff, the Employer did not list the
employees in these classifications in another exhibit,
which lists the names of the individuals in Design
and Format Control and Reproduction, nor were
these classifications submitted with a group of job
descriptions for the employees in the Design and
Format Control and Reproduction Department.
Since it appears from the record that they are not
engaged in any phase of the lithographic process,
but are in fact engaged in clerical work such' as
billing, writing specifications to be used in
purchasing, and in assisting the Consultant in
Graphic Arts and the Forms Control Officer, we
will exclude them from the unit.
On the basis of the foregoing, we find that the
following employees constitute an appropriate unit
for purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9(b) of the Act.
All employees employed in the Design and
Format Control and Reproduction Department of
the Employer at its Centralized Services
Administration Building, San Francisco, California,
including employees from this department who work
at the Employer's Headquarters building; but
excluding utility employees, specification writers,
requisition processors, the forms control officer's
assistant, the operations assistant, and all office
clerical employees, professional employees,
managerial employees, guards, and supervisors as
defined in the Act, and all other employees.
[Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
for Region 20 within 7 days after 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 extraordinary circumstances. Failure to
comply with this requirement shall be grounds for setting aside the election
whenever proper objections are filed Excelsior Underwear Inc, 156 NLRB
1236.