Gladewater Refining Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 2, 1945

64 N.L.R.B. 696 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of GLADEWATER REFINING COMPANY and OIL WoRIiERs
INTERNATIONAL UNION, CIO
Case No. 16-h-1394.-Decided November 2, 1945
Mr. Herman Jones, of Austin, Tex., and Mr. H. F. Richardson, of
Gladewater, Tex., for the Company.
Mr. Lindsay P. Walden, of Fort Worth, Tex., Mr. J. P. Rhodes, of
Dallas, Tex., and Mr. J. A. Lee, of Kilgore, Tex., for the Union.
Mr. A. Sumner Lawrence, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by Oil Workers International Union, CIO,
herein called the Union, alleging that a question affecting commerce
has arisen concerning the representation of employees of Gladewater
Refining Company, Gladewater, Texas, herein called the Company,
the National Labor Relations Board provided for an appropriate
hearing upon due notice before H. Carnie Russell, Trial Examiner.
Said hearing was held at Longview, Texas, on July 25, 1945. The
Company and the Union appeared and participated. All parties were
afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine
witnesses, to introduce evidence bearing on the issues and to file briefs
with the Board. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Gladewater Refining Company, a partnership composed of H. F.
Richardson, J. E. G. Craig, E. L. Ames, W. F. Starnes, C. E. Starnes,
Jr., and H. F. Richardson, Trustee for Rosemary Starnes, has its
principal office and plant at Gladewater, Texas, where it is engaged in
the production, refining, transportation and marketing of crude oil
and related petroleum products. In the course of its refining opera-
64 N. L R. B., No. 119.
696
GLADEWVATER REFINING COMPANY 697
tions, the Company purchases monthly from sources outside the State
of Texas, ethyl fluid valued at approximately $3,000. Between Janu-
ary 1, 1945, and June 30, 1945, the Company produced a total of
15,736,517 gallons of finished petroleum products valued at $732,353,
of which 111/9 percent was shipped by tank cars to points outside the
State of Texas."
We find that the Company, contrary to its contention, is engaged
in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations
Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Oil Workers International Union, affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, is a labor organization admitting to mem-
bership 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 until the Union
has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit.
A statement of a Board agent, introduced into evidence at the hear-
ing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of em-
ployees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.2
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. TIIE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union contends that all employees of the Company, including
the employees of the refinery, the oil and water pipe lines 3 and all
production employees,' but excluding the refinery superintendent, the
manager, general office employees and all supervisory employees with-
in the Board's usual definition, constitute an appropriate unit. The
' The Company contends that its interstate activities are so small a part of its dis-
tributing operations that the Board is without jurisdiction to entertain the petition filed
herein. We find no merit in this contention. The record indicates that the amount of
the Company's direct interstate shipments is not inconsiderable. The jurisdiction of the
Board does not rest upon the quantum of material carried across State lines. See
N. L. R B. v Fainblatt, et al , 306 U. S. 601.
2 The Board agent reported that the Union had submitted 24 cards dated in May and
June 1945. There are approximately 25 employees in the claimed appropriate unit. The
Union's motion that the Board check the signatures thereon with the records of the
Company is hereby denied.
' The oil and water pipe lines serve the refinery and supply crude on and water required
for refinery operations.
' Production employees who work on leases within varying distances up to 12 miles from
the refinery are engaged in the production of crude oil used by the Company at is refinery
in the manufacture of petroleum products.
698 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Company contends that the unit should include only refinery em-
ployees and that employees in other operations should be excluded
therefrom. The Company also maintains, in opopsition to the Union,
that employees in the positions of manifest clerk and loading dockman
are general office employees, and, as such, should be excluded from the
unit.
The record discloses that the employees in the various divisions
of the Company, although in certain instances under separate local
supervision, are subject to the general overall control of the Com-
pany's manager with respect to labor relations; that the employees
in each of the several groups contribute to the general operations
of the Company and enjoy substantially the same privileges and work-
ing conditions; and that organization by the Union has been effected
upon a company-wide basis without limitation to any single depart-
ment of the Company's employees. Under the circumstances, we are
of the opinion that a company-wide unit is appropriate for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining.
There remains for consideration the question of including or exclud-
ing the manifest clerk and the loading dockman, from the appropriate
unit. Both the manifest clerk and the loading dockman, although
under the direct supervision of the sales manager and engaged in duties
of a clerical or semi-clerical nature, are hourly paid employees who
spend all their time in the refinery yard in connection with shipping
operations and enjoy the same working privileges as all other produc-
tion and maintenance employees of the Company. We find that the
manifest clerk and loading dockman are not general office employees
but rather employees whose duties and interests are allied to those of
the production and maintenance group ; accordingly, we shall include
them in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.5
We find that all employees of the Company including the manifest
clerk and loading dockman, but excluding general office employees,
the manager of the Company, the refinery superintendent and all other
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
At the hearing the Union made a motion that it be certified on the
record. The motion, ruling on which the Trial Examiner reserved
See Matter of Kearney and Treeker Corporation , 60 N. L . R. B. 148.
GLADEWATER REFINING COMPANY 699
for the Board, is denied in the absence of a stipulation by all the
parties consenting to such certification.6
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 herein,
subject to the limitations and additions 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 Act,
and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Gladewater Refin-
ing Company, Gladewater, Texas, 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 Sixteenth 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 were ill or on vaca-
tion 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 those employees who have since quit or been dis-
charged 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 Oil Workers International Union, CIO, for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining.
MR. GERARD D. REILLY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
9 See Matter of Aluminum Company of America, 56 N. L. R. B. 216; Matter of Todd Ship-
yards Corporation , 62 N. L. R. B. 1086; cf . Matter of Bohn Aluminum & Brass Corporation,
41 N. L. R. B. 1012.