Central Ohio Light and Power Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 20, 1943

51 N.L.R.B. 522 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of CENTRAL OHIO LIGHT AND POWER Co. and UTILITY
WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, LOCAL 271 (CIO)
Case No. B-5564.-Decided July 20, 1943
Miles & O'Brien, by Mr. Seymour O'Brien, of Baltimore, Md.;
Mr. Marcus C. Downing of Findlay , Ohio; and Mr . Thomas F. Veach,
of Cleveland , Ohio , for the Company.
Mr. Francis M. McMahon , of Dayton , Ohio, and Mr. Bennie R.
Shafer, of Bluffton , Ohio, for Local 271.
Klingshirn & Snow , by Mr . William Snow , of Toledo , Ohio, and
Mr. R. A . Betts, of Findlay , Ohio, for the Group.
Mrs. Augusta Spaulding , of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Utility Workers Organizing Commit-
tee, Local 271 (CIO), herein called Local 271, alleging that a ques-
tion affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of
employees of Central Ohio Light and Power Co., Findlay, Ohio, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Max W. Johnstone,
Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Findlay, Ohio, on June
21, 1943. The Company, Local 271, and P. D. & T. Group,' herein
called the Group, appeared, participated, and were afforded full op-
portunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and
to introduce evidence bearing on the issues.2 The Trial Examiner's
rulings made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are
hereby affirmed. All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs
with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
1 The initials "P D & T." stand for Production, Distribution and Transmission.
2 At the commencement of the hearing the Group filed a petition for investigation and
certification of representatives of the Company in a plant unit. This petition was filed in
support of the Group's motion to intervene, which was granted by the Trial Examiner.
51 N. L. R. B., No. 96.
522
CENTRAL OHIO LIGHT AND POWER CO . 523
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Central Ohio Light and Power Co. is engaged in the production,
transmission, and distribution of electric energy for light and power
purposes in central Ohio. The principal raw materials used by the
Company in its utility operations are coal, poles, conductors, hard-
ware, and electrical equipment. The Company purchases annually
for its use approximately 60,000 tons of coal, valued at approximately
$250,000. This coal is purchased by the Company through an Ohio
concern having its offices at Cincinnati, but the coal has its origin
in Kentucky. The Company purchases conductors, hardware, and
electrical equipment, valued at approximately $100,000, most of which
is manufactured outside Ohio but purchased by the Company within
the State. y
None of the electric energy produced by the Company is transmitted
outside Ohio and its properties are located wholly within that State.
The annual sales of the Company's electric energy approximate
$2,000,000. The Company sells electric energy at wholesale and retail.
The Company's commercial customers are various, and include -ga-
rages, stores, banks, restaurants, filling stations, manufacturing com-
panies, municipalities, other power companies, and cooperatives of
the Rural Electrification Administration. The Company serves rural
areas as well as towns, villages, and cities. In addition to its electric
light and power business, the Company furnishes hot water heating
service to customers at Findlay, Ohio.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Utility Workers Organizing Committee, Local 271, is a labor organi-
zation affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, ad-
mitting to membership employees of the Company.
P. D. & T. Group is an unaffiliated labor organization, admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
M. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
In February 1943, Utility Workers Organizing Committee, herein
called the U. W. O. C., began organizing the Company's employees.
In March 1943, the employees formed the Group, a labor organization
restricted to employees of the Company. In March the Company re-
fused, upon request, to recognize the U. W. O. C. as bargaining repre-
sentative of the power plant employees, contending that the proposed
unit was not appropriate for bargaining. In April the Group asked
the Company for recognition as bargaining representative of em-
524 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployees in an industrial unit. The Company so refused to recognize
the Group, in view of the conflicting claim of the U. W. O. C.
A statement prepared by the Trial Examiner and read into the
record at the hearing indicates that the Group represents a substantial
number of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.3
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE 'UNIT
The U. W. O. C. contends that all power plant employees working
at the Company's power plants at Bluffton, Findlay, and St. Marys,
Ohio, excluding executives, supervisors, foremen, and clerks, consti-
tute an appropriate bargaining unit. The Group contends that all
employees of the Company, excluding managerial, supervisory, and
clerical employees, constitute an appropriate bargaining unit. The
Company contends that the industrial unit is the only appropriate
bargaining unit for its employees.
The Company is engaged in the production, transmission, and dis-
tribution of electric energy for light and power purposes. It serves
central Ohio. Purchases for the entire system, all pay rolls, and all
service records are centralized at the Findlay office. All new em-
ployees are hired or approved, and policies concerning wages, hours,
and working conditions are determined, at Findlay. A single group
of executives-a general manager, a general superintendent of opera-
tions, and a superintendent of production and distribution at Find-
lay-directs the Company's entire operations and determines uniform
policies.
The Company divides its territory into two divisions known as the
Western and Eastern Divisions. In the Western Division the Com-
pany maintains power plants at Bluffton and at Findlay, where it
regularly produces electricity, and a power plant at St. Marys, which
it operates as a "cold standby" and substation. The Company partially
serves its Western Division with electricity that it produces. The
Company buys all the electricity with which it serves its customers
in its Eastern Division and controls the transmission of such electricity
at a substation at Wooster. The generating and transmission system
of the Western Division is not physically connected with the trans-
8 The Group submitted 58 authorization cards bearing apparently genuine signatures of
employees on the, pay roll of April 12, 1943.
There are approximately 97 employees in the appropriate bargaining unit.
The U W . 0 C. submitted 20 authorization cards , all dated in February 1943, bearing
apparently genuine signatures of power plant employees on the pay roll of April 12, 1943.
None of these cards bear the signatures of employees at the power plant at St. Marys.
There are approximately 43 power plant employees.
CENTRAL OHIO LIGHT AND POWER CO. 525
mission and distribution system of the Eastern Division. The Com-
pany's principal service shops and stores are at Findlay, the largest
town in the Western Division and at Wooster, the largest town in the
Eastern Division. These shops are the headquarters of all distribu-
tion, transmission, and meter employers-all employees except power
plant and clerical employees. All work orders issue from these divi-
sion headquarters. The Company owns and maintains a telephone
line connecting its several plants and shops.
The Company's employees include 43 production employees who
work in and about the 3 power plants,-' 43 line employees,5 1 patrolman,
2 janitors,1 night watchman, and 7 meter employees.
The Bluffton power plant, with 22 employees, generates about 98
percent of electric energy produced by the Company; the Findlay
plant, with 17 employees, 2 percent. The St. Marys plant, with 4
employees, normally generates no electricity. The 3 power plants are
connected by a transmission line. St. Marys is about 45 miles distant
from Bluffton, the nearer of the 2 plants.
Power plant employees are not necessarily limited to working
within the power plant. They sometimes assist line employees in
installing equipment in adjacent substations, and they may operate
outdoor switches.. The power plant employees at Findlay operate
the central hot water heating system in Findlay, and in this connec-
tion they perform service work outside the power plant. They work
on the hot water heating line and on occasion go into the customers'
homes to make adjustments as to the system. Meter and service
employees are in emergencies called in to the power plants to make
repairs. Meter and service employees are often called in to work
in the repair and operation of substations not adjacent to power
plants. Line employees and power plant employees jointly repair
and operate substations near power plants. Line, meter, and service
employees operate and maintain the company-owned inter-plant com-
munication system. There is active cooperation among the several
classes of employees when emergencies call upon their services. All
operations are directed from the Findlay office.
Although the U. W. 0. C. contends that it chartered Local 271, the
petitioner in this proceeding, as a local union expressly for the power
plant employees of the Company, the record clearly discloses that
the U. W. 0. C. is organizing the Company's employees on an indus-
4At the St. Marys plant there are 4 shift engineers ( one on each shift and a relief man)
who, operate voltage regulator equipment , read meters , and open and close switches. At
the Findlay and Bluffton plants there are 8 shift engineers, 10 boiler operators , 9 oilers,
-3 general utility men , 1 hot water maintenance man, 1 hot water beat man, 1 electrician,
5 maintenance men, and 1 apprentice technical engineer.
6 There are 4 working line and service foremen , 13 linemen„ 1 ground man, 3 truck drivers,
1 mechanic , 1 maintenance man, 1 tree trimmer , 12 service men, 1 appliance service man,
2 storekeepers , and 4 service station operators.
526 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
trial basis and has not limited its organizational activity to the unit
which it urges in the petition. The U. W. 0. C. has no members
among employees at the St. Marys power plant, whom it would
include in the three-plant unit. The Company's integrated utility
service, the small size of the Company's operations, and the related
functions of the departments therein clearly indicate that a system-
wide unit is the appropriate bargaining unit for the Company's
employees. Since the U. W. 0. C. is an industrial union actively
engaged in organizing the Company's employees on an industrial
basis, and since the Group represents employees in all the several
departments of the Company's operations and has filed a petition
for investigation and certification herein, we see no reason to set up
a unit smaller than a system-wide unit of the Company's employees
for the purposes of collective bargaining.6
The parties agree, and we find, that clerical employees and all non-
working supervisory employees should be excluded from the bargain-
ing unit. They would include working foremen within the unit-
shift engineers in the power plants and line and meter foremen.
These working foremen do not hire or discharge or recommend the
hire or discharge of employees with whom they work. The
U. W. 0. C. and the Group disagree as to the inclusion in the unit
of the chief maintenance foreman at Findlay and the chief plant
engineer at the St. Marys power plant. The U. W. 0. C. would
exclude both, and the Company and the Group would include
them. The chief maintenance foreman at Findlay is a salaried
employee because his hours are somewhat irregular and he is subject
to call. He is working foreman with two helpers. The chief plant
engineer at the St. Marys power plant is one of the three regular
shift engineers. He operates the plant during, the morning shift.
An extra shift man relieves the regular shift men on their days off
and 3 days per week assists the chief plant engineer on repair work
at the plant. The two other regular shift engineers work alone on
their shifts.
The record does not disclose how far the working foremen have
authority to discipline or effect changes in the status of employees
with whom they work or effectively recommend such action. We
shall include within the bargaining unit all working foremen who
have no such authority.
We find that all production and maintenance employees of the
Company, including working foremen who have no authority to hire,
promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in te
status of employees under them or effectively recommend such action,
but excluding all other supervisory employees, executives, and clerical
6 Matter of Florida Power and Light Company, 42 N. L . It B. 742.
CENTRAL OHIO LIGHT AND POWER CO . 527
employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen can best be resolved by an election by secret ballot.
Since the U. W. O. C. is engaged in organizing the Company's
employees on an industrial basis, although the record does not dis-
close the extent of its representation among employees other than
power plant employees, we shall direct that the U. W. O. C. and the
Group both appear upon the ballot, provided, however, that the
U. W. O. C. may withdraw its name by notifying the Regional Di-
rector within five (5) days of the date of the issuance of this Direc-
tion of Election that it does not desire to participate in the election.
Those eligible to vote in the election shall be all employees of the
Company in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the
date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the limitations
and additions set forth in the Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain represent-
atives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Central Ohio
Light and Power Co., Findlay, Ohio, an election by secret ballot
shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30)
days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Eighth Region, acting in
this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and
subject to Article III, Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations,
among the employees of the Company in the unit found appropriate
in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period
immediately- preceding the date of this Direction, including em-
ployees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they
were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including em-
ployees in the armed forces of the United States who present them-
selves in person at the polls, but excluding employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause, to determine whether they desire
to be represented by P. D. & T. Group, or by Utility Workers Or-
ganizing Committee, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing, or by neither.