First National Bank Building Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 16, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 1109 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of FIRST NATIONAL BANK BUILDING CORPORATION, EM-
PLOYER and WAREIIousE EMPLOYEES UNION # 322, INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS , CHAUFFEURS , WAREHOUSEMEN AND
HELPERS OF AMERICA, A. F. OF L ., PETITIONER
Case No. 5-RC-325.-Decided December 16, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before LeRoy W. C.
Mather, 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. The Employer, a Virginia corporation, owns and, as its only
business, operates a 16-story office building in Richmond, Virginia.
The Employer is in turn owned by the 2 tenants of the building,
First and Merchants National Bank of Richmond, and Chesapeake and
Ohio Railway, both admittedly engaged in interstate commerce. Two
officers of the Railway are directors of the Employer. The Bank owns
51 percent of the stock of the Employer, and occupies 15 percent of
the building space; the Railway ow=ns 49 percent of the stock and
occcupies the remaining 85 percent of the space. In its part of the
building, the Bank maintains its central office, and in the rest of the
building are located the general offices of the Chesapeake Division
of the Railway. The entire operation of the Railway in Virginia, West
Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois is directed from these offices,
although the executive offices of the Chesapeake and Ohio system are in
Cleveland, Ohio.
During 1948, the Employer purchased coal and janitor supplies
valued in excess of $50,000, of which 10 percent originated outside the
State of Virginia.
In Midland Building Cornpany,l we held that the business of owning
and operating a general office building; renting to a variety of ten-
ants, is an essentially local enterprise. We cannot so regard the in-
stant case where two employers who are engaged in interstate coin-
178 NLRB 1243.
87 NLRB No. 116.
1109
1110 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
merce combine to provide necessary business and office space through
the medium of a wholly owned subsidiary. In our view there is no
significant difference between this case and those where a single em-
ployer engaged in interstate commerce directly provides his own office
building. from which to carry on his business.
We find that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the National Labor Relations Act 2
2. The Petitioner is a labor organization claiming to represent
employees of the Employer.
3. A 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.
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all building service
employees, excluding guards, watchmen, clerical employees, and super-
visors. The Employer agrees generally that the proposed unit is ap-
propriate, but would exclude, in addition to the exclusions listed by
the Petitioner, the employees discussed below :
(a) The mechanic is the general maintenance man. He works
throughout the building making minor repairs, replacing light bulbs
and doing odd jobs. The Employer's reason for desiring to exclude
him appears to be based on the fact that he exercises independent
judgment in planning and doing his work. He has, however, no
supervisory duties. We shall include him in the unit.
(b) The firemen are semi-skilled workmen who keep the automatic
furnace stokers filled and watch the steam pressure gauges. Clearly,
they are maintenance employees. We shall therefore include them.
(c) The engineer supervises the work of the firemen. He can ef-
fectively recommend the hiring or discharge of subordinates. We
find that the engineer is a supervisor and we shall exclude him from
the unit.
(d) The elevator dispatcher is also clearly a supervisor. He is in
charge of the elevator operators, directing their work and effectively
recommending their hiring and discharge. We shall therefore
exclude him.
We find that the following employees constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of
Section 9 (b) of the Act:
All building service employees in the employ of the Employer in
its First National Bank Building, Richmond, Virginia, including the
mechanic and firemen, but excluding guards, watchmen, clerical em-
2 Southern California Edison Company , Ltd., 56 NLRB 1172; The Texas Company, 21
NLRB 110 ; at. International Trade Mart , 87 NLRB No. 97.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK BUILDING CORPORATION 1111
ployees, the engineer, the elevator dispatcher, and all other supervisors
as defined in the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the. investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than
30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and super-
vision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this case
was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees in the
unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who were
employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or
temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or re-
instated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-
gaining, by Warehouse Employees Union #322, International Broth-
erhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of
America, A. F. of L.