City Cab Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 8, 1963

141 N.L.R.B. 1133 (N.L.R.B. 1963)

CITY CAB COMPANY AND ITS MEMBERS 1133
City Cab Company and its Members and City Cab Drivers Asso-
ciation , Petitioner. Case No. 7-RC-5459. April 8, 1963
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 Milton Fischer, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. City Cab Company and its members contend that the petition
should be dismissed inasmuch as each of the members is an individual
employer, no one of which meets the Board's jurisdictional standards
for the assertion of jurisdiction. City Cab is a nonprofit membership
corporation incorporated for the specific purpose of providing services
for its approximately 58 members, who own and operate taxicabs in
the city of Detroit. The parties stipulated that in 1961 the combined
gross revenue received by all members as fares for taxicab services
approximated $750,000, of which approximately $7,500 was received
from customers transported to or from passenger terminals in inter-
state commerce.
It is apparent from the record that each of the members hires and
discharges his own drivers, sets their wages and hours of employment,
maintains his own payroll records, and is responsible for purchasing,
insuring, and repairing his own cabs. None meets the $500,000 retail
standard which the Board applies to taxicab companies.
On the other hand, it is clear that City Cab exercises substantial
control over each member's drivers in their day-to-day conduct. Thus,
all City Cab drivers must conform to rules which have been drawn
up by City Cab after being approved by the members. City Cab
employs a driver-superintendent who has authority, likewise approved
by the members, to call cabs off the streets for any violation of these
rules. In addition, City Cab maintains a Board of Review which meets
every week to consider complaints against any drivers. Although it
was contended that the Board of Review merely recommends discipline
to the member employing the offending driver, the effect of such rec-
ommendations is best viewed in the light of City Cab's bylaws, which
provide that a member may be expelled from the organization for
cause.
The Board recently considered an operation of this type, held the
nonprofit membership corporation and each of its members to be joint
employers in a common enterprise, and combined the gross revenues
received by each of the members for jurisdictional purposes. Checker
Cab Company, and its Members, 141 NLRB 583. Accordingly, on
almost identical facts, we make a similar joint-employer finding herein.
141 NLRB No. 107.
1134 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
As the revenues thus combined exceed $500,000, and as legal jurisdic-
tion is clearly present, we further find that it will effectuate the policies
of the Act to assert jurisdiction.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employers.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employers within the meaning of Section
9(c) (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The parties stipulated to the appropriateness of the unit set forth
below, and further stipulated that any employee who worked at least
1 regular shift for 1 day or more per week for any 10 weeks in a 21-
week period is a regular part-time employee. We adopt these stipula-
tions and shall, for eligibility purposes, utilize the 21-week period
immediately preceding the date of the direction of election herein.
Accordingly, we find that the following employees constitute a unit
appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9(b) of the Act:
All full-time and regular part-time drivers of cabs owned by persons,
partnerships, corporations, and associations who are members (senior,
associate, or otherwise) of City Cab Company, Detroit, Michigan, ex-
cluding office clerical employees, member-drivers, roadmen, garage
employees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBERS RODGERS and LEEDOM, dissenting :
For the reasons stated by us in Checker Cab Company, and its Mem-
bers, 141 NLRB 583, we would find that the record herein supports
neither the assertion of jurisdiction nor the appropriateness of the
unit sought.
Radio Corporation of America and Local 241, American Federa-
tion of Technical Engineers , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No.
4-RC-5070. April 8, 1963
DECISION, ORDER, AND CLARIFICATION OF
CERTIFICATION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Harold Bernard, Jr., hear-
ing 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 [Members Rodgers, Fanning, and Brown].
141 NLRB No. 102.