Groendyke Transport, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 15, 1951

92 N.L.R.B. 1332 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

In the Matter of GROENDYKE TRANSPORT, INC.,' EMPLOYER and GENERAL
' Hftrv1 Rs, CHAUFFEURS AND HELPERS LOCAL UNION No. 886, INTER-
NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSE-
MEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 16-RC-597.-Decided January 15,1951
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before John F. Funke, hearing
officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from
prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed 2
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the. Act, the Board has
delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member.
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds].
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 organization involved claims to represent employees 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 Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of truck drivers 'at the
Employer's Enid and Ponca City, Oklahoma, and Wichita Falls,
Texas, terminals, excluding all other employees. The Employer con-
tends that only a unit embracing the employees of all its terminals
located in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas would be ap-
propriate. The Employer also. would include in such a unit all its
mechanics and owner-operators of trucks.
The Employer operates a truck freight line for the transportation of
gasoline and oil products in the States of Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado,
and Kansas, having terminals in Amarillo, Borger, Perryton, and
1 The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
2 The Employer moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that the unit requested by
the Petitioner is inappropriate . The hearing officer referred this motion to the Board. For
reasons given in paragraph numbered 3, below, the Employer's motion is granted.
92 NLRB No. 200 .
1332
GROENDYKE TRANSPORT, INC. 1333
Wichita Falls, Texas; Ardmore, Beaver, Enid, Ponca City, and Wood-
ward, Oklahoma; La Junta and Lamar, Colorado; and Dodge City,
Kansas. There are from 160 to 200 drivers in its employ.
Although each of its terminals is supervised by a local manager„
each of these managers is directly responsible to the Employer's traffic:
manager, who is stationed at its principal offices in Enid, Oklahoma..
The employee skills, working conditions, and pay rates in all the,
Employer's terminals are identical, and there is frequent interchange
of employees between its various terminals as required by the shifts
of its business and as directed by its traffic manager.3
No specific reason is advanced by the Petitioner to justify a single
unit comprising these three terminals. They are widely separated
geographically, and do not correspond to any functional or adminisl
trative division of the Employer's operations. We find that the unit
thus proposed is inappropriate for collective bargaining purposes'
We shall therefore dismiss the petition .-5
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
8 The Employer frequently undertakes to transport large quantities of gasoline and oil
products within the various areas surrounding its terminals, for the Federal Government
and other large users and dealers in these products. Whenever it undertakes to do so,
it shifts to the particular location as much of its entire personnel as is necessary to'com-
plete the job in a short time.
Champion Stores, Inc., 72 NLRB 1050.
In view of our decision that the unit sought is inappropriate, we find it unnecessary
to pass upon the parties' contentions as to the specific categories to' be inclined in such
a unit.