Continental Trailways, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Sep 30, 1977

232 N.L.R.B. 628 (N.L.R.B. 1977)

DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Continental Trailways, Inc. and International Union of
Operating Engineers, Local No. 714, AFLCIO,
Petitioner. Case 16-RC-7476
September 29, 1977
DECISION ON REVIEW AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
BY CeHAIRMAN FANNING AND MEMBERS
JENKINS AND PENELLO
On May 13, 1977, the Regional Director for Region
16 issued a Decision and Direction of Election in the
above-entitled proceeding in which he found appro-
priate a unit of office clerical employees at the
Employer's facilities located at 2801 Logan Street in
Dallas, Texas. Thereafter, in accordance with Section
102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules
and Regulations, Series 8, as amended, the Employer
filed a timely request for review of the Regional
Director's decision, contending that a unit limited to
the Logan Street offices is inappropriate, and that the
only unit for the employees involved must include
office clericals employed at its Jackson Street office,
also located in Dallas, Texas.
On June 7, 1977, the National Labor Relations
Board by telegraphic order granted the request for
review and stayed the election pending decision on
review. Thereafter, on June 9, 1977, the Board
granted the Petitioner's request to proceed with the
election pending decision on review.
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 entire record in this
case and hereby makes the following findings:
The Employer is a Delaware corporation engaged
in providing bus and transportation services to
several States. The Employer's main corporate
headquarters are located at 1500 Jackson Street in
Dallas, Texas. The Petitioner sought a unit of office
clerical employees in the Employer's revenue ac-
counting department located at 2801 Logan Street,
Dallas, Texas. The Jackson Street and Logan Street
facilities are located approximately I mile apart in
downtown Dallas, and there is no history of
collective bargaining at either location.
In finding that the employees at the Logan Street
facility constituted an appropriate unit, the Regional
Director relied primarily on substantial autonomy of
day-to-day operations in the revenue accounting
department and limited interchange and contact
between the employees located at Jackson Street and
those at Logan Street. For the reasons set forth
below, we agree with the Employer that the factors of
232 NLRB No. 99
functional integration of the Employer's operations,
centralized control over labor relations policies, and
substantial similarities on job functions and working
conditions mandate a finding that only a single
overall unit is appropriate.
The Employer's facility at 2801 Logan Street
houses the revenue accounting department, under
the overall supervision of Ottis Harris. Within the
revenue accounting department are nine subdepart-
ments which are in turn headed by supervisory
employees who report to Harris. Employees at the
Logan Street offices are generally responsible for
receiving, accounting, and processing various re-
ports, billings, and refunds generated by the Employ-
er's operations. The main corporate headquarters at
1500 Jackson Street also houses a number of various
departments, including data processing, personnel,
internal audit, payroll, and accounts receivable. Like
the Logan Street office, each of these departments at
Jackson Street is headed by a supervisor who is
comparable in status and authority to Harris in the
revenue accounting department. Thus, despite the
geographic separation from the main office at
Jackson Street, Harris' authority at Logan Street is
no more than that of the other supervisory personnel
located at Jackson Street. Harris visits the Jackson
Street office on an almost daily basis, and is in
constant telephonic communication with the Jackson
Street office.
It is apparent from the record that there is a
substantial amount of functional integration between
the operations of the revenue accounting department
at Logan Street and the various departments at
Jackson Street. Information received and computa-
tions arrived at in the revenue accounting depart-
ment are sent by machine or delivered manually to
the data processing department at Jackson Street.
The Logan Street billing department processes
several types of billing accounts which are trans-
ferred to the Jackson Street location for data
processing keypunch. In answering inquiries and
satisfying customer complaints with respect to billing
procedures, there is frequent contact between em-
ployees at both facilities. In a similar vein, the refund
department at Logan Street computes the amount
due on all unused bus tickets and forwards this
information to Jackson Street for the issuance of a
refund check. In answering inquiries with regard to
refunds, Logan Street employees are in constant
contact with the internal audit and cashier's depart-
ments at Jackson Street. In addition, the record
reflects a high degree of integration between the
work of the drivers and agents reports departments
(both located at Logan Street) and the departments
of general accounting, internal audit, and tax and
reports at the Jackson Street offices. Similarly, the
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CONTINENTAL TRAILWAYS
Logan Street "interline" department interacts on a
regular basis with the Jackson Street accounts
receivable department, as does the Logan Street
billing department. In sum, it is clear from the record
the office operations of the Employer are so highly
integrated between the two operations that one could
not effectively function without the other.
In addition to the high degree of functional
integration, the Employer's office operations in
Dallas are characterized by a high degree of
centralized control with respect to personnel and
labor relations policies. Thus, the overall supervisor
at the Logan Street facility, Harris, does not have the
authority to hire, fire, suspend, lay off, or grant
leaves of absence without the approval of the
Employer's vice president-controller, David Taylor,
located at Jackson Street. Further indicative of the
high degree of centralization in labor affairs is the
fact that working hours, pay scales, vacations,
benefits, and all other terms and conditions of
employment are identical for employees at both
locations.
The nature of the work performed at both locations
is substantially the same. Almost all positions and
classifications at both locations require basic ac-
counting and bookkeeping skills, as well as clerical
skills and a familiarity with keypunch operations.
Because of this similarity in job functions and
requirements, there have been between six to eight
transfers from the Logan Street offices to the Jackson
Street office within the past year and, on occasion,
certain employees are "loaned" from one office to
another for short periods of time.
In addition to the functional integration noted
supra (resulting in significant employee interchange
and contact), the record further reveals that the
Employer's internal communications system dictates
a substantial amount of day-to-day contact between
the two office facilities. Both locations use the same
telephone exchange, telex equipment and operator,
and telex number. All calls coming into the Revenue
Accounting department at Logan Street come
through the Jackson Street switchboard operator,
and all mail addressed to Logan Street is delivered to
Jackson Street, where it is then routed to Logan
Street via the Employer's internal distribution sys-
tem.
We note that the express audit, data processing,
and payroll departments, once located at Logan
i See Home Elterminating Companv, 160 NLRB 1480(1966).
2 There are approximately 170 to 190 employees at the Logan Street
facility unit sought by Petitioner, and approximately 165 employees at the
Jackson Street facility which we find must he included in the appropriate
unit. As we hase found appropriate a unit substantially different from that
sought by the Petitioner herein, the Petitioner shall be given 10 days from
Street, were transferred at one point to the Jackson
Street offices. In fact, it appears from the record that
the only reason the Logan Street operation has not
been transferred to Jackson Street is a lack of
adequate space at the Jackson Street facilities. Upon
the foregoing, we conclude that a unit limited to
employees at the Logan Street office of the Employer
is inappropriate and that the appropriate unit must
include the Jackson Street office clerical employees.
In so finding, we rely particularly on the high degree
of functional integration between the two facilities;'
the fact that the supervisor at the Logan Street office
does not have substantial autonomy in labor rela-
tions matters; identical employee functions and
terms and conditions of employment; the high
degree of centralized control with respect to person-
nel matters; and the geographic proximity of the two
office facilities.
Inasmuch as we have found the petitioned-for unit
at Logan Street to be inappropriate, and this was the
unit in which the Regional Director conducted an
election and impounded the ballots, we shall direct
the Regional Director to destroy said impounded
ballots.
At the hearing on this matter, the Petitioner
declared its willingness to proceed to an election in
the larger unit urged by the Employer and which we
have found appropriate herein. In accordance with
the foregoing, we find that the following employees
constitute an appropriate unit for the purposes of
collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9(b) of the Act:
All office clerical employees employed by the
Employer at its facilities at 2801 Logan Street and
1500 Jackson Street, Dallas, Texas, addresses,
including group leaders, and excluding all other
employees including technical employees, profes-
sional employees, guards, watchmen, and supervi-
sors as defined in the Act.
[Direction of Election 2 and Excelsior footnote
omitted from publication.]
CHAIRMAN FANNING, dissenting:
I would affirm the Regional Director's finding that
a unit of all office clericals at the Employer's Logan
Street location constitutes a unit appropriate for
collective bargaining.
the date of this Decision on Review and Direction of Election to make an
additional showing of interest. If the Petitioner does not now wish to
participate in an election in the unit we find appropriate herein, we shall
permit it to withdraw its petition upon written notice to the Regional
Director within 10 days from the date of this Decision on Review and
Direction of Election.
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