Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 30, 1974

208 N.L.R.B. 825 (N.L.R.B. 1974)

COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM
Columbia Broadcasting System , Inc.' and National
Association of Broadcast Employees & Techni-
cians, AFL-CIO.2 Petitioner. Case 31-RC-2501
January 30, 1974
DECISION AND ORDER
By CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS JENKINS
AND KENNEDY
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer Tony
Bisceglia. Following the hearing and pursuant to
Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations, Series 8, as amended,
by direction of the Regional Director for Region 31,
this case was transferred to the National Labor
Relations Board for decision. Briefs have been filed
by National Association of Broadcast Employees &
Technicians, AFL-CIO, herein called Petitioner, and
by Writers Guild of America, west, Inc. and Writers
Guild of America, east , Inc.. herein called Interve-
nor.a
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the
National Labor Relations Board has delegated its
authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel.
The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's
rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are
free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this 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 and the Intervenor are labor
organizations within the meaning of the Act.
3. No question affecting commerce exists con-
cerning the representation of certain employees of
the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1)
and 2(6) and (7) of the Act for the following reasons:
The Employer, Columbia Broadcasting System,
Inc., with headquarters in New York, operates, inter
alia , radio and television stations in New York,
Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. The Peti-
tioner seeks an election in a unit consisting of
newswriters and continuity writers employed on
salary at television station KNXT in Los Angeles.4
I As amended at the hearing.
x As amended at the hearing.
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO, also
was present at the hearing and , off the record, asserted its interest in
appearing on the ballot if an election is directed in any unit which includes
KNX radio. It did not further intervene in the proceeding.
4 As an alternative, Petitioner would consider a unit of employees for
whom the petition was filed who are employed by the Employer at both
825
The Employer contends that the proposed unit is
inappropriate because these employees have long
been included in a broader unit of news and
continuity writers employed by it at its television and
radio stations in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia,
and Los Angeles, which is represented in collective
bargaining by the Intervenor.
At the hearing, the Intervenor took the position
that either the existing multistation unit, or a unit
composed of newswriters and continuity writers
employed by the Employer at both its radio station
KNX and its television station KNXT in Los
Angeles. is appropriate.
Collective-Bargaining History
The Employer's Los Angeles newswriters and
continuity writers6 are covered by a lengthy history
of collective bargaining. From 1941 through 1954,
Radio Writers Guild represented the Employer's
writers for radio in Los Angeles. In 1954, as
television evolved, Radio Writers Guild became the
Intervenor, Writers Guild of America, representing
the Employer's Los Angeles writers for both radio
station KNX and television station KNXT. The 1956
collective-bargaining agreement between the Em-
ployer and the Intervenor covering these Los Angeles
writers was negotiated in Los Angeles and did not
cover the Employer's writers in any other location.
Although the Employer then opposed the negotia-
tion of one contract covering all of its facilities
throughout the nation at which the Intervenor
represented the writers, such an agreement, known as
the "1958-1960 WGA-CBS National Staff Agree-
ment," was reached in 1958. Local differences were
negotiated in separate local supplements to that
national agreement. A similar pattern of collective
bargaining continued through 1968 with national
agreements and local supplements being negotiated
in 1958, 1960, 1963, and 1965. During those negotia-
tions, the national agreements were negotiated in
New York and the Los Angeles supplements were
negotiated in Los Angeles.
In 1968, however, the negotiation of both the
national agreement and the Los Angeles local
supplement took place in New York. And in 1971 the
parties negotiated and executed in New York an
agreement extending the 1968-71 national agreement
and local agreements to February 13, 1973. This
KNXT and radio station KNX
s in its brief , the Intervenor argues in favor of a Los Angeles area
multistation unit consisting of the employees at KNX and KNXT, asserting
that such a unit should be found appropriate even if the Board also finds
appropriate the current national multistation unit supported by the
Employer.
6 The term "writers" used hereinafter refers to newswriters and
continuity writers.
208 NLRB No. 126
826 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
extension agreement provided for across-the-board
wage increases.
In late 1972, negotiations began in New York for a
national staff agreement to replace the extension
agreement. Negotiations ceased as to the Los
Angeles local supplemental agreement upon the
filing of the petition herein, but continued in regard
to the new national agreement7 and the New York,
Chicago, and Philadelphia supplements.
The 1968-71 WGA-CBS National Staff Agreement
sets out details in areas including, inter alia, union
security, dues checkoff, vacations, leave (sick, mater-
nity, military), grievance and arbitration, strikes and
lockouts, working conditions, and certain fees and
salaries. The Los Angeles supplement, not a com-
plete document standing alone, sets out, inter alea,
salaries, fees allowances, overtime, work schedules,
holidays, and additional details on arbitration.
The 1968-71 national agreement, extended until
February 1973, contains a clause which indicates the
obvious intent of the Intervenor and the Employer to
include in the unit at least the writers covered by the
scope of the agreement-those employed by the
Employer in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and
Los Angeles."
Based on the foregoing history of collective
bargaining between the Employer and the Intervenor
on behalf of all writers employed by the Employer in
New York. Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles,
it is clear that, while local supplements to the
national agreement were negotiated, the Intervenor
has, since 1958, represented as part of a multistation
unit those employees sought by the Petitioner herein.
Moreover, the scope and nature of the local
bargaining and the resulting local supplements to the
national agreement are not so substantial as to defeat
the claim of a "national" or multistation unit. In
those cases in which the Board found such circum-
stances to exist9 there were certain factors present
-reference in the master agreements to "units" with
inclusion of a description of each "plant unit,"
absence of significant history of point bargaining,
bargaining through the years for various numbers of
As the Petitioner stated that it has no interest in proceeding to an
election in the nationwide unit which the Employer supports , the question
of contract bar in the nationwide unit is moot
8 The 1968--71 WGA-CBS National Staff Agreement , art I. sec 7, reads
It is agreed that the scope of this Agreement is without prejudice to any
claim which may hereafter he asserted by the Union or by the
Company that the bargaining unit be wider in scope or larger in eetent,
but no such claim shall affect the validity of this Agreement . [Emphasis
supplied 1
9 Sperry Rand Corporation, Univac Division, 158 NLRB 997, Remington
Office Machines, Minneapolis Branch, 158 NLRB 994, Dow Jones &
Company, Inc , 142 NLRB 421 , Sav-On-Drugs , Inc, 138 NLRB 1032.
American Linen Supply Co, Ins , 129 NLRB 993, Swift & Company, 124
NLRB 50, Radio Corporation of America, 121 NLRB 633; American
Broadcasting Company , Inc, 114 N LRB 7, National Broadcasting Company,
Inc., 114 NLRB 1.
locations where the union was able from time to time
to demonstrate majority status, and/or existence of
separate agreements with no master agreement or
recognition clause expressing the intention to merge
separately certified units into a single bargaining
unit-which are absent in the instant case . Hence, in
those situations the Board relied on the absence of
any intention to merge into one bargaining unit in
determining that the nature of the local bargaining
defeated a claim that there was an existing multiplant
unit.
Such are not the facts in the instant case, however.
Rather, as noted, the scope of the national agreement
here clearly indicates that the parties viewed the
employees represented as comprising one unit. The
local supplements, while indicating the employees
covered by each and covering local differences and
needs, do not even purport to modify the "unit" as
provided in the national agreement. Hence, the
negotiation of these supplements, while dealing with
problems of individual locations, cannot be said to
indicate an intention to preserve the separate identity
of individual "units." 10
The Board is reluctant to disturb such an estab-
lished multistation bargaining unit . Moreover, in
considering the intent of the parties herein, we find
that the Employer and the Intervenor, by their acts
in negotiating on a multistation basis and by
including a clause in the resulting national agreement
allowing for the expansion of that multistation unit,
have indicated their intent to be bound in a unit no
smaller than that multistation unit . The master
agreement and the local supplements dependent
thereon demonstrate that the Employer and the
Intervenor, while dealing with local problems,
intended to minimize the identity of the separate
stations and to establish a single comprehensive
multistation unit.
Accordingly, we find the requested unit of writers
at the Employer's television station KNXT in Los
Angeles, and the alternative requested unit of writers
10 '1 he fact that such local bargaining may have been extensive and
covered such provisions as wages. hours . etc, does not defeat the national
agreement's expressed intention of recognizing one comprehensive unit In
fact. not only did the parties sign a single agreement in 1971 extending both
the national agreement and local supplements and providing for across-the-
board wage increases , but also the bargaining for the local supplements has
been conducted in New York since 1968 Further, during the most recent
negotiations. the Employer's negotiating team was the same for all
locations , and much of the Los Angeles negotiations (although such
negotiations ceased upon the filing of the petition herein) took place without
the presence of any Guild representative from Los Angeles. We cannot view
such "local" bargaining as defeating the parties ' expressed intention of
dealing with a single, multistation bargaining unit Univac Division of
Remington Rand Division of Sperry Rand Corporation, 137 NLRB 1232;
General Motors Corporation, Cadillac Motor Car Division , 120 N LRB 1215,
GulfAilantic Warehouse Company. IIl NLRB 1249
COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM 827
at both television station KNXT and radio station
KNX in Los Angeles, inappropriate." As the
Petitioner has indicated that it does not desire to
proceed to an election in the broader multistation
unit, we shall dismiss its petition.
ORDER
It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein
be, and it hereby is, dismissed.
11 General Motors Corporation, Cadillac Motor Car Division , 120 NLRB
1215; Ford Motor Company, 92 NLRB 188.