Georgia Power Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 17, 1941

32 N.L.R.B. 692 (N.L.R.B. 1941)

In the Matter of GEORGIA POWER COMPANY and UTILITY WORKERS
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Case No. R-2536.-Decided June 17, 1941
Jurisdiction i electric utility industry.
Practice and Procedure : petition dismissed where no appropriate unit within
the scope of the petition.
Mr. P. S. Arkwright, of Atlanta, Ga., for the Company.
Mr. R. H. Brazzelle and Mr. C. H. Gillman, of Atlanta, Ga., for
the Utility Workers.
Mr. G. X. Barker, of Birmingham, Ala., for the Brotherhood.
Mr. Joseph C. Gill, of counsel to the Board. - -
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On March 27, 1941, Utility Workers Organizing Committee, herein
called the Utility Workers, filed with the Regional Director for the
Tenth Region (Atlanta, Georgia) a petition alleging that a question
affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of em-
ployees of the Georgia Power Company, Atlanta, Georgia, herein
called the Company, and requesting an investigation and certification
of representatives pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein called the Act. On April 21, 1941,
the National Labor Relations Board, herein called the Board, acting
pursuant to Section 9 (c) of the Act, and Article III, Section 3, of
National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2,
as amended, ordered an investigation and authorized the Regional
Director to conduct it and to provide for an appropriate hearing upon
due notice.
On April 26, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of hearing,
copies of which were duly served upon the Company, the Utility
Workers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
herein called the Brotherhood, a labor organization claiming to repre-
sent employees directly affected by the investigation. Pursuant to
notice, a hearing was held on May 6, 1941, at Atlanta, Georgia, before
32 N. L. R. B., No. 125.
692
GEORGIA POWER COMPANY 693
Alexander E. Wilson, Jr., the Trial Examiner duly designated by
the Chief Trial Examiner. The Company, the Utility-Workers, and
the Brotherhood appeared by representatives and participated in the
hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine
witnesses and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues was afforded
all parties. During the course of the hearing, the Trial Examiner
made various rulings on motions and on objections to the admission
of evidence. The Board has reviewed the rulings of the Trial Exam-
iner and finds that no prejudicial errors were committed. The rulings
are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Georgia Power Company is a Georgia corporation with its principal
office and place of business in Atlanta, Georgia. All its common stock
is owned by Commonwealth and Southern, a utility holding company.
The Company is engaged in generating, buying, transmitting, selling,
and distributing electrical energy. It serves most of the State of
Georgia. The Company owns and operates 23 hydroelectric plants
in the State of Georgia. Approximately 45 per cent of the energy
used by the Company is purchased from sources outside the State
of Georgia, including Tennessee Valley Authority, Alabama Power
Company, and South Carolina Power Company. The Company also
sells and distributes electrical appliances and has showrooms and
distributing points in 80 towns which it serves. It also distributes
natural gas in the city of Columbus, Georgia, and manufactures and
distributes gas in the city of Americus, Georgia. The Company oper-
ates a steam plant at Atlanta, Georgia, and distributes steam for heat-
ing purposes. Transportation systems are operated in Atlanta, Au-
gusta, Macon, and Rome, Georgia. The Company does not distribute
any electrical current or gas outside the State of Georgia, but on
occassion it sells excess power to other utility companies located in
States other than Georgia. It furnishes electrical current to various
instrumentalities of commerce, such as railroads, bus lines, radio sta-
tions, and telegraph companies which operate in the State of Georgia.
The Company has approximately 5,000 people in its employ.
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Utility Workers Organizing Committee is a labor organization
affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations admitting to
its membership employees of the Company.
694 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is a labor organi-
zation affiliated with the American Federation of Labor admitting to
its membership employees of the Company.
III. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Utility Workers contend that 48 negro common laborers in
the underground section of the Company at Atlanta, Georgia, con-
stitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
The Brotherhood and the Company dispute the appropriateness of
such unit and further contend that their collective bargaining contract
covering such employees is a bar to a determination of representatives
for them.
The 48, negro laborers in the underground section of the under-
ground construction department are unskilled workmen who build
and maintain ducts and manholes of the underground system. They
dig and brace tunnels and ditches. They haul out excess dirt, shovel
it into trucks and shovel it back into the holes if and when necessary.
These laborers in the alleged appropriate unit do not work directly
with the electrical wires and equipment although their work is done
in close proximity to and in conjunction with the work on the electrical
wires and equipment. There are six other white laborers doing similar
work who occasionally work directly with the electrical wires. There
are 114 employees in the underground section of the Company, in-
cluding the 48 negro common laborers alleged by the Utility Workers
to constitute an appropriate unit and the 6 other white laborers.
All of these' 114 workers, except the 48 laborers referred to, work
directly with the electrical wires and equipment, either all or part
of the time. All 114 employees work together on a single project.
They have the same hours, substantially the same conditions of work,
the same superintendent, and the same paymaster. None of the
Company's 5,000 employees are at present represented by any labor
organization recognized by the Company for purposes of collective
bargaining other than the Brotherhood.
The Company has dealt with the Brotherhood since 1918 and from
1934 to the present the Brotherhood has had a contract with the Com-
pany. The contract made between the Company and the Brotherhood
on March 1, 1939, which expired March 1, 1941, provided that the
Brotherhood was the exclusive representative for purposes of collec-
tive bargaining of "regular employees, members of the Brotherhood,"
working in certain named departments including the department here
in question. The contract now in force which was signed May 1 and
is retroactive to March 1, 1941; provides that the Brotherhood shall
be the exclusive representative for "regular employees of the Company
GEORGIA POWER COMPANY 695
in the electrical, construction, operating and maintenance departments."
This contract covers the underground section.
The Utility Workers organized the negro laborers in the under-
ground section in February and March 1941.1 A local charter was
obtained March 8, 1941. The 48 underground laborers in question have
never been members of the Brotherhood.
At the time that the underground laborers obtained their charter
from the Utility Workers, the contract which the Company had with
the Brotherhood did not cover them for they were not members of the
Brotherhood and the contract between the Company and the Brother-
hood only purported to cover employees of the Company who were
members of the Brotherhood. The contract entered into between the
Company and the Brotherhood on May 1, 1941, which was made retro-
active to March 1, 1941, does not bar the possible certification of the
Utility Workers as exclusive representative for these laborers should
they constitute an appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining, since it was executed after the Utility Workers filed its
petition herein.2
The Utility Workers contend that the 48 negro laborers have been
discriminated against by the Brotherhood and have been denied and
refused membership in the Brotherhood, that for this reason they have
no representative for purposes of collective bargaining, and that the
Board should, therefore, establish the 48 negro laborers as a separate
appropriate unit. In support of this contention the Utility Workers
produced three of the negro laborers at the hearing who testified that
they had made attempts to become members of the Brotherhood but had
been told by various people that they could not become members.3 In
opposition to such contentions, the International vice president of the
Brotherhood testified at the hearing that all workmen engaged in
electrical. work or work that is performed in conjunction with electrical
work are admitted as members to the Brotherhood without respect to
race, color, or nationality. He further testified that none of these
common laborers had been refused or denied membership but, on the
contrary, that they had been solicited to join the Brotherhood. - He
also stated that negotiations were being carried on with the Company
with respect to the wages for common laborers, but as soon as the
petition was filed these negotiations were suspended pending disposi-
tion of this proceeding. From the evidence introduced it does not
1A statement by the Regional Director read into the record recites that the Utility
Workers "submitted 37 signed application cards bearing genuine original signatures of
employees of the Company Nxho were on the Company' s pay roll as of April 9, 1941.
2 Matter of Pressed Steel Car Company, Inc. and Steel Workers Organizing Committee,
7 N L. R. B. 1099, 1101; Matter of California Wool Scouring Company and Textile
Workers Organiwing Committee, 5 N. L. R. B. 782 at 785.
It was stipulated at the hearing that 30 other negro laborers similarly qualified could
be produced to testify to substantially the same things as these 3 witnesses.
696 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
clearly appear that the negro laborers here concerned have been
discriminatorily denied membership in the Brotherhood.
In view of the functional organization of the underground- section
of the Company and the history of collective bargaining between the
Brotherhood and the Company and in- view of the fact that the 48
negro underground laborers are eligible to membership in the Brother-
hood and- will be made members should they make a proper applica-
tion in the regular manner, we believe that the unit alleged by the
Utility Workers is inappropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining under the circumstances of the case, and,we so find. We shall
therefore dismiss the petition.
IV. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since, as stated in Section III above, the bargaining unit sought
to be established by the petition is not appropriate, we find that no
question has arisen concerning the representation of employees of the
Company in an appropriate bargaining unit. -
Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and upon th e"entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following :
CONCLUSION OF LAW
No question concerning the representation of employees of Georgia
Power Company, Atlanta, Georgia, in a unit which is appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining, has arisen within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act. -
ORDER
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and conclusion of
law, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders that the petition
for investigation and certification of representatives of employees of
the Georgia Power Company, Atlanta, Georgia, filed by Utility
Workers Organizing"Committee Be, and it hereby is, dismissed.