Fetzer Broadcasting Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 12, 1954

110 N.L.R.B. 316 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

316 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
find a unit confined to maintenance electricians inappropriate for sev-
erance as a craft unit.'
There remains for consideration the possibility of granting the
request of the Petitioner on the basis of a departmental unit. Under
the rule enunciated in the American Potash 2 case the existence of
similar craftsmen outside the departmental unit does not preclude the
severance of such a unit otherwise appropriate.
However, the electrical maintenance department is of necessity only
a part of the entire maintenance department and the maintenance
electricians regularly perform work relating to their crafts in con-
junction with other craft maintenance employees. It is our opinion
that the electrical maintenance department is not a functionally dis-
tinct department containing employees identified with traditional
trades or occupations distinct from that of other employees.
Inasmuch as the unit sought does not meet the requirements estab-
lished by the Board in American Potash for severance of a depart-
mental unit, or a craft unit, we shall dismiss the petition.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
1 See The Lonssvslle Plant of the Msnneapolts -Moline Company, 108 NLRB 1458.
2 American Potash & Chemncal Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418.
FETZER BROADCASTING COMPANY and NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROAD-
CAST EMPLOYEES AND TECHNICIANS, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 7-
RC-2460. October 12,1954
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Myron K. Scott, hearing offi-
cer. 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. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act for the following
reasons:
The Employer is a Michigan corporation with its principal offices
located at 124 West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, Michigan. It owns
and operates a radio and television station, WKZO and WKZO-TV,
110 NLRB No. 46.
FETZER BROADCASTING COMPANY 317
at Kalamazoo. The radio transmitter is located approximately 2
miles north of Parchment, Michigan, and the television transmitter is
located approximately 14 miles north of Kalamazoo. The Employer
also owns and operates a radio station, WJEF, in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, approximately 50 miles from Kalamazoo. The AM trans-
mitter for WJEF is located on the Pantlind Hotel at Grand Rapids
and the FM transmitter, which transmits a complete duplication of the
AM programs, is located at the same site as the WKZO-TV transmit-
ter and operated by the same engineer.
The managing director of both radio stations and the television sta-
tion is also the station manager of the WKZO radio and television sta-
tion and the immediate supervisor of the station manager and chief
engineer of WJEF. The chief engineer and his assistant at station
WKZO supervise approximately 18 engineers and/or technicians, and
the chief engineer at station WJEF supervises 4 engineers and/or
technicians. The office and accounting department for all these op-
erations is located in Kalamazoo, from where all payments are made,
and one public affairs director performs the public affairs service
for all operations.
The Petitioner seeks a unit confined to all radio and television
engineers and technicians at station WKZO and WKZO-TV. It
contends that these employees have interests apart from those of em-
ployees in the Employer's radio station WJEF. The Employer and
the Intervenor contend that the employees sought by the Petitioner are
part of an integrated operation, such station being interdependent
upon the other, and that the only appropriate unit would embrace the
engineers and technicians at all the Employer's operations. The In-
tervenor, further, asserts its current contract as a bar to this proceed-
ing. In view of our finding herein, we find it unnecessary to rule on
this issue.
In 1940, the Intervenor, Radio Broadcast Technicians, Local 1295,
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL, hereinafter
referred to as IBEW, was recognized as the collective-bargaining
representative of engineers and technicians at radio station WKZO.
In 1946, after the Employer built WJEF, engineers and technicians
employed there were included in the bargaining agreement. Likewise,
when the television station was added to WKZO, those engineers and
technicians were included under the contract.
There is evidence that all the engineers and technicians in the employ
of the Employer have the same basic training and comparable skills,
and that there has been a considerable number of transfers, at one time
or another, from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids, and vice versa, of the
employees involved herein as well as the other employees. One engi-
neer was employed at WKZO, transferred to WJEF, and then trans-
318 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ferred back to WKZO, and is at present operating concurrently the
transmitters for both WKZO-TV and WJEF-FM.
All stations operate under the same set of standards and general
policy. Engineering personnel at WJEF may originate a remote
program for use by WKZO, and the converse is true. Approximately
one-half of the Employer's national sponsors are sold on a combina-
tion rate, i. e., the price is based on the number of spot announcements,
and the announcements on WJEF and WKZO are totaled together to
determine the sponsor's rate. All engineers and technicians in the
Employer's operations have been under the same contract and, conse-
quently, receive the same benefits such as insurance, pension, profit-
sharing plans, and bonuses, and are paid .according to the same wage
scale.
In view of the above facts, and on the entire record, the Board finds
that the, integration, interdependence, and centralized control of the
Employer's operations, the history of multiplant bargaining, and the
uniformity of interests, skills, and working' conditions within the
multiplant unit make a unit restricted to employees of the radio and
television stations, WKZO and WKZO-TV, at Kalamazoo, Michigan,
inappropriate. Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition filed herein.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
MESSENGER CORPORATION, PETITIONER and UNITED PAPERWORKERS OF
AMERICA, CIO. Case No. 13-RM-19.. October 12, 1954
Decision and Direction
Pursuant to a stipulation for certification upon consent election exe-
cuted June 11, 1954, an election was conducted on June 29, 1954, under
the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the Thir-
teenth Region, among certain employees of the Employer. At the
close of the election, a tally of ballots was furnished each of the parties
in accordance with the Board's Rules and Regulations. The tally
shows that 51 valid ballots were cast for the Union, 49 valid ballots
were cast against the Union, 8 ballots were challenged, and no ballots
were void. No objections to the election were filed within the time
provided therefor.
As the challenged ballots were sufficient in number to affect the re-
sults of the election, the Regional Director, acting pursuant to the
Board's Rules and Regulations, investigated the issues raised by the
challenges, and on August 19, 1954, issued his report on challenges,
recommending that the challenge to 1 ballot be sustained, and that the
challenges to 7 ballots be overruled. Thereafter, the Union filed ex-
ceptions to part of the Regional Director's report.
110 NLRB No. 41.