Equitable Gas Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 29, 1943

54 N.L.R.B. 155 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of EQUITABLE GAS COMPANY and DISTRICT 50, UNITED
MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA
Case No. 6-R-817.-Decided December 29, 1943
Reed, Smith, Shaw d McClay by' 111r. Virgil W. Thomas, and Mr.
Chauncey Pruger, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for the Company.
Mr. Yelverton Cowherd, of Washington, D. C., and Messrs. Abe
Vales and John W. Miller, of Pittsburgh, Pa., for the Union.
Miss Frances Lopinsky, of counsel-to-the Board.- -
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE_
Upon a petition duly filed by District 50, United Mine Workers of
America, herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting.
commerce had arisen concerning the-representation of employees of
Equitable Gas Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, herein called the
Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for an ap-
propriate hearing upon due notice before W. G. Stuart Sherman,
Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
on November 9,' 1943. The Company and the Union appeared;
participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard; to ex-
amine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing
on the issues. 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:
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Equitable Gas Company, a Pennsylvania corporation with its prin-
cipal office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a subsidiary corporation
whose stock is wholly owned by the Pittsburgh and West Virginia
Gas Company, herein called the P. & W., which is a wholly"owli'ed-
subsidiary of The Philadelphia Company. The Company is engaged
54 N. L R. B., No. 25.
155
156 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
in the production, transmission, and distribution of natural gas in
southwestern Pennsylvania. During the 12-month period ending
July 31, 1943, the Company produced or purchased 34,456,709,000
cubic feet of natural gas, approximately 80 percent of which was
purchased from the P. & W. and was obtained from sources outside
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The P. &. W. obtains about
two-thirds of its supply of gas from the Kentucky and West Vir-
ginia Gas Company, another subsidiary of The Philadelphia Com-
pany. All of the Company's sales are made, and its product is dis-
tributed, within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Company
and the P. & W. supply a substantial amount of their natural gas
to companies and industries engaged in interstate commerce.
The Company admits that it is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
IT. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
District 50 United Mine Workers of America is a labor organiza-
tion admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The Company has refused to grant recognition to the Union as the
exclusive bargaining representative of its employees because it ques-
tions the appropriateness of the unit requested.
A statement of the Regional Director, introduced into evidence at
the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number
of employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union requests a unit composed of all production and mainte-
nance employees in Divisions G and H of the Company, which are both
in Pennsylvania, and all employees at the Company's compressing
stations in western Pennsylvania, excluding all clerical workers and
supervisors.2 The Company contends that all of the employees of the
P. & W. exclusive of clerical and supervisory employees should be in-
' The Regional Director reported that the Union submitted 95 application for membership
cards, all of which bore apparently genuine original signatures; that the names of 70 per-
sons appearing on the cards were listed on the Company's pay roll of September 24, 1943,
which contained the names of 148 employees in the appropriate unit ; that the cards were
dated in May, June, July, and August 1943.
2 The employees of the Distribution Division (Divisions A, C, and E) of the Company
are represented by the Union in a separate unit The unit requested comprises all other
employees of the Company employed in Pennsylvania except the telephone workers and the
persons employed on behalf of the Company by The Philadelphia Company.
EQUITABLE GAS COMPANY 157
eluded with those above mentioned in an appropriate unit, and that
temporary employees of both companies should be excluded.
The Company is licensed to operate only in Pennsylvania and oper-
ates to the West Virginia line; the P. & W. is licensed to operate only
in West Virginia and operates to the Pennsylvania line. The com-
panies are closely integrated in certain respects. They have the same
president, vice president, and general manager. A man stationed in
West Virginia supervises all compressor stations in both States; a
man stationed in Pennsylvania controls all pressure by telephoning
orders to pressure stations in both States. The same rules and regula-
tions, hours and benefits, govern both companies. All hiring and
discharging is initiated by supervisors in the respective companies
but must be ratified by the central personnel department maintained
by The Philadelphia Company for all of its subsidiaries. The com-
panies work together toward the goal of supplying gas to the metro-
politan area of Pittsburgh. This fact, together with the facts above
stated, are elements tending to establish the appropriateness of the
Company's proposed unit. The Company, however, is largely a dis-
tribution Company, servicing a large metropolitan area ; the P. & W. is
for the most part a transmission Company and operates in a rural
area. For this reason there is a difference in both social and indus-
trial problems to be met by-the employees of the respective companies.
There is very little interchange of employees between the two. Most
of the transfers from one State to the other are between com-
pressor stations or for construction work. The Union has organized
only the employees of the Company. As the Company is an inte-
grated unit separable from the P. & W. in respect to corporate struc-
ture, geographic division and nature of activity, we find that the em-
ployees of the Company may properly be segregated , for the purposes
of collective bargaining from the employees of P. & W.3 This find-
ing, however, does not preclude a later determination that a larger
unit is appropriate when organization shall have extended to the
employees of the P. & W.
The temporary employees whom the Company would exclude (and
the Union would include) are for the most part construction workers.
All persons performing jobs which the Company classifies as tempo-
rary are placed in this category irrespective of tenure. They are paid
by the day; permanent employees are paid by the month. The Com-
pany has on its pay roll a number of temporary employees who have
been continuously employed by it for more than a year. When va-
cancies occur among the permanent employees they are not necessarily
filled by promotion of temporary employees to permanent status
although the Company has made a point of giving these employees
preference. Inasmuch as the temporary employees have a substantial
3 See Matter of Missouri Utslaties Co., Case No . 14-R-766, 54 N. L. R. B. 37.
158 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL, LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
expectation of obtaining permanent positions with the Company and
since their periods of tenure, even as temporary employees, are of
indefinite duration, sometimes more than a year, they have a definite
interest in the wages, hours, and working conditions of the Company.
Accordingly, we shall include them in the unit.4
We find that all production and maintenance employees of Divisions
G and H of the Company, and all employees of the Company's com-
pressor stations in western Pennsylvania,5 including temporary em-
ployees but excluding all clerical employees and all supervisory
employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or
otherwise effect changes in the status of employees or effectively
recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes
of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the
Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit 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 Relations
At, and-pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Equitable Gas
Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 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 supervision
of the Regional Director for the Sixth Region, acting in this matter as
agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article
III, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among the
employees 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 employees who did not work during
said pay-roll period because they will ill or on vacation or temporarily
laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United
States who present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding
See Matter of fmtith -Wood Products Co, 45 N. L. R B 787 ; Matter of John Yaseh,
37 N. L. R. B. 156.
, Waynesburg , Pa., and Bentleyville , ra, Divisions ; Kelly Dennison , Wise and Rogers-
ville stations.
EQUITABLE GAS COMPANY 159
those employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause and
have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election,
to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by District
50, United Mine Workers of America, for the purposes of collective
bargaining.
MB. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.