Blue & White Cab Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 11, 1961

132 N.L.R.B. 954 (N.L.R.B. 1961)

954 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
All office clerical and plant clerical employees, including the head
statistician and statisticians, but excluding all other employees, the
parts technician at the Oakland, California, shop, the stock and parts
employees at the Los Angeles, California, shop, professional em-
ployees, confidential employees, guards, the supervisor of stores and
the assistant supervisor of stores at the Los 'Angeles shop, chief dis-
patchers, dispatchers, truck dispatchers, and assistant truck dispatch-
ers, foremen and assistant foremen, dock foremen and assistant dock
foremen, the general accountant, the chief accountant, the machine
accounting supervisor, the accountant-terminal accounting, the assist-
ant machine accounting supervisor, the chief file clerk, chief clerks,
office managers, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election 5 omitted from publication.]
5 The Intervenor urges that certain employees who are not now and for some time have
not been in the unit be eligible to vote on the ground that they have replacement and/or
bidding rights under certain circumstances to classifications within the unit The Peti-
tioner opposes the eligibility of these employees . As the ground advanced by the Inter-
venor is insufficient to warrant a change in our usual eligibility rules in this case, we find
that these employees are ineligible to vote.
Pioneer Holding Company , d/b/a Blue & White Cab Co. and
Local 958, International Brotherhood of Teamsters , Chauf-
feurs, Warehousemen & Helpers of America, Petitioner. Case
No. 18-8C-4631. August 11, 1961
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Hjalmar Storlie, 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 Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-
member panel [Chairman McCulloch and Members Leedom and
Brown]. '
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the 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.
' Local 12, Office Employees International Union , AFL-CIO, was permitted to intervene
on the basis of its contractual interest.
132 NLRB No. 77.
BLUE & WHITE CAB Co. 955
4. The Petitioner seeks an election among the Employer's dispatch-
ers and order takers who have for over 10 years been represented by
the Intervenor in a unit with office clerical employees. It proposes to
represent the dispatchers and order takers in either a separate unit or
as part of its currently certified unit of taxi drivers and repairmen.
The Employer and Intervenor contend that insofar as the requested
employees are concerned, their established unit placement is alone
appropriate. Also the Intervenor moved to dismiss the petition on
the ground that the employees sought do not meet the Board's craft or
departmental standards for severance. In view of our decision herein,
we find these contentions without merit, and consequently deny the
motion to dismiss.
The dispatchers and order takers work together in rooms which are
separate from the office clerical work area. Basically, the duty of the
order takers is to receive telephone orders for taxi service,2 note them,
and pass them to the dispatcher who, pursuant to the orders, routes the
cabs by way of radio contact with the drivers. While the office cler-
icals are supervised by the office manager, the dispatchers and order
takers are under the supervisor of taxi drivers. Further, as a thorough
knowledge of the city is necessary in the performance of their duties,
dispatchers and occasionally order takers are recruited from among
the taxi drivers. Though there is regular and substantial interchange
between drivers and the dispatcher-order taker group, none exists
between the latter and office clericals. Moreover, in the ordinary
course of work, there is almost no contact between the clerical em-
ployees and dispatcher-order taker group.
It is evident from the foregoing that the dispatchers and order
takers are not office clerical employees and do not have a close com-
munity of interest with such employees. Rather, such factors as su-
pervision, employee interchange, and work contacts show that they
have an immediate and substantial community of interest with the
drivers warranting their being placed under normal circumstances not
in an office clerical unit, but in the unit presently represented by the
Petitioner.' However, in view of their history of inclusion in the
bargaining unit represented by the Intervenor, we shall afford them
an opportunity to express their desires with respect to their choice of
representative.' We shall therefore direct an election in the follow-
2 It appears from the record that the dispatchers do not act as general telephone
operators for the Employer but that they are limited almost, if not wholly , to receiving
orders for cabs.
3 Yellow Cab, Inc ., 131 NLRB 239, including dispatchers in a drivers unit As the
order takers here work in close contact with the dispatchers, and in view of the factors
such as supervision and interchange noted above , they clearly , under the circumstances,
should also be included with the drivers . In view of our conclusions above we find that
under the circumstances a separate unit limited to dispatchers and order takers is not
appropriate.
* Westinghouse Electric Corporation , Sharon Transformer Division, 129 NLRB 1204.
956 DECISIONS, OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ing voting group : All dispatchers 5 and full- and regular part-time
order takers at the Employer's Minneapolis, Minnesota, taxicab opera-
tion, excluding office, clerical employees, drivers, all other employees,
guards, and supervisors. as defined in the Act.
If a majority of the employees in the voting group vote for the
Petitioner, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be in-
cluded in the unit now represented by the Petitioner, and the Regional
Director conducting the election herein is instructed to issue a certifi-'
cation of results to that effect. In the event a majority vote for the
Intervenor, these employees will be taken to have indicated their
desire to remain in the unit represented by the Intervenor and the
Regional Director will issue a certification of results to that effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
B Part-time dispatchers , who are also drivers and currently represented by the Peti-
tioner in its established unit, are excluded from the voting group.
Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corporation and Southern Confer-
ence , of Teamsters , Petitioner and International Chemical
Workers Union, AFL-CIO, Local 36. Case No. 13-RC-866.
August 11, 1961
ORDER AMENDING CERTIFICATION OF
REPRESENTATIVES
Pursuant to the Decision and Direction of Election 1 issued by the
Board on August 5, 1960, an election was held among the Employer's
employees at its Concentrated Superphosphate Plant and Mining
Division in Nichols, Homeland, and Clear Springs, Florida. On
December 2, 1960, a runoff election was held. Thereafter, on Decem-
ber 12, 1960, the Petitioner, having received a majority of the valid
votes cast in the runoff election, was certified as the exclusive bargain-
ing representative in a unit of the aforementioned employees.. On
February 2, 1961, the Petitioner filed a motion to amend the certifica-
tion by substituting the name "Phosphate Workers Union, Local 308,
affiliated with International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs,
Warehousemen and Helpers of America." The Employer filed objec-
tions to the motion, alleging mainly that the petition affirmatively
showed on its face that the employees in the bargaining unit affected
were not made aware, prior to the election, that Petitioner's name
would be deleted from the certification upon the formation of the.
1128 NLRB 446.
132 NLRB No. 74.