KMTR Radio Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 8, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 99 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of KMTR RADIO CORPORATION (KLAC-TV), EMPLOYER
and BROADCAST, TELEVISION, RLCORDING ENGINEERS, LOCAL UNION
45 Or THE INTERNATIONAL BROTNERUIOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS.
(AFL), PETITIONER
Case No. 21-RC-748.-Decided July 8, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Ben Grodsky,.
hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board. 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 National Labor Relations Act.
2. The Petitioner and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage
Employees and Moving Picture Operators, herein called the Inter-
venor, are labor organizations 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 appropriate unit:
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit composed of all employees
in both the engineering and the program departments 1 at the Em-
ployer's television broadcasting studio in Los Angeles, California, and.
the transmitter station on Mt. Wilson, Los Angeles County, California.
The Intervenor contends that this unit should properly be broken up
into two separate units consisting of (1) the engineering department
employees, excluding the projectionist and set lighting electricians,.
and (2) the program department employees, including the projec-
tionist and set lighting electricians. The Employer is neutral.
' There are approximately 42 employees in both departments.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 14.
99
857829-50--vol. 85-8
100 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The engineering department includes all employees who work with
electronic apparatus, such as the camera control men, cameramen, the
camera switcher, the microphone boom operator, the sound engineer,
the transmitter men, the projectionist, and- the set lighting men. These
employees are all under the supervision of the chief engineer. The pro-
gram department is under the supervision of the program director.
It includes those employees who design, construct, and paint stage sets,
stage managers, property men, and the make-up artist.
The record shows that all of the employees in both departments
work together in a close-knit group to produce and put on the air a
television broadcast. There are only 4 employees in the entire group
of 42 whose presence is not, at some time or other, required in the
studio or in the control room during telecasting. While a broadcast
is actually on the air, all of the employees involved in the production
of that particular broadcast are under the direction of the producer.
It is therefore clear that a single, 2-department unit sought by the
Petitioner could be appropriate.
On the other hand, each department separately forms an identifiable,
cohesive group. Thus, the employees in the engineering department
are either skilled electronics technicians, or work entirely with elec-
tronic apparatus, whereas the employees in the program department
perform work usually performed by persons holding similar jobs in
legitimate theaters and in motion picture studios. Program depart-
ment employees need have no knowledge of electronic engineering and,
as pointed out above, they are under the separate supervision of the
program director. In these circumstances, we believe that the pro-
gram department employees and the engineering department employ-
ees may, if they so desire, also constitute separate appropriate units.
The Intervenor would include in, and the Petitioner exclude from,
the proposed program department unit, the projectionist and the set
lighting electricians who are under the supervision of the chief
engineer.
The projectionist operates the film projector when a motion picture
is being televised. The projector used. in television is a standard
motion picture projector which has been adjusted for television broad-
casting so as to expose three frames, or pictures, simultaneously, and
at a rate faster than the usual rate of projection of a motion picture
film. The projectionist feeds the film into the projector, which takes
very little of his time. He spends most of his working time watching
the oscilloscope, an electronic device which tells him what electronic
adjustments must be made in order to project the clearest, best-bal-
anced picture into the television camera, and making those adjust-
KMTR RADIO CORPORATION (KLAC-TV) 101
ments. As indicated above, the projectionist is part of the engineering
department and is supervised by the chief engineer.
The set lighting electricians are also part of the engineering depart-
ment, and work under the supervision of the chief engineer. They
need not know much about electronics, but they must know the lan-
guage of electronics as they take all their orders in those terms from
the production director in the control room. They must also know
lighting, not only as an artistic medium, as stage and motion picture
set lighting men know it, but also as television camera control men
know it, as a matter of intensity, the limitations of which are set by
the limitations of the sensitive photo-cathode tube in the television
camera.
As it appears that in this case the projectionist and the set light-
ing electricians are, part of the engineering department and work in
close association. with the other members of that department, we shall
follow the Employer's administrative arrangements and include them
in that voting group.
We shall direct separate elections in the following voting groups,
excluding from each all office and clerical employees, professional em-
ployees, guards, and supervisors as defined in the Act :
(1) All employees in the engineering department of the Employer's
television broadcasting station in Los Angeles, California, and the
transmitter station on Mt. Wilson, including the projectionist and
the set lighting electricians.
(2) All employees in the program department of the Employer's
television broadcasting station in Los Angeles, California, including
set designers, set decorators, scenic artists, sign painters, show card
artists, stage carpenter, set erectors, property men, prop makers, stage
managers, and the make-up artist, but excluding the projectionist and
the set lighting electricians.
However, we shall make no final unit determination at this time, but
shall be guided in part by the desires of the employees as expressed in
the elections hereinafter directed. If a majority of the employees in
each group vote for the Petitioner, they will be taken, in this case, to
have expressed their desire to constitute a single appropriate unit.
DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the pur-
poses of collective bargaining with the Employer, separate elections
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
supervision of the Regional Director for the Twenty-first Region, and
102 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 5, as amended, among the em-
ployees in the voting groups described in paragraph numbered 4,
above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately
preceding the date of this Direction of Elections, 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 reinstated prior to the date of the elections, and also exclud-
ing employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to
determine :
1. Whether or not the employees in voting group (1) desire to be
represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by Broadcast, Tele-
vision, Recording Engineers, Local Union 45 of the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (AFL) ; and
2. Whether the employees in voting group (2) desire to be repre-
sented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by International Al-
liance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators,
or by Broadcast, Television, Recording Engineers, Local Union 45
of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (AFL), or
by neither.
MEMBER GRAY took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Elections.