Lutheran Church

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Aug 17, 1954

109 N.L.R.B. 859 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

LUTHERAN CHURCH, MISSOURI SYNOD
Determination of Dispute
859
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings, and the entire record in
this case, the Board makes the following determination of dispute pur-
suant to Section 10 (k) of the Act :
1. United Association of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumb-
ing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local
420, AFL, and its agents, are not and have not been lawfully entitled
to force or require Frank W. Hake, James D. Hake, Glenn F. Hake,
t/a Frank W. Hake, Day & Zimmerman, Inc., William H. Walters
& Sons, Inc., or any other employer in the Philadelphia area to assign
the rigging work on any equipment to members of Local 420 rather
than to members of Riggers and Machinery Movers Local Union No.
161, affiliated with the International Association of Bridge, Structural
and Ornamental Iron Workers, AFL.
2. Within ten (10) days from the date of this Decision and Deter-
mination of Dispute, the Respondent Local 420 shall notify the Re-
gional Director for the Fourth Region, in writing, as to what steps
the Respondent Local 420 has taken to comply with the terms of this
Decision and Determination of Dispute.
MEMBER PETERSON took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Determination of Dispute.
LUTHERAN CHURCH, MISSOURI SYNOD 1 and INTERNATIONAL BROTHER-
HOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, LOCAL 1217, AFL, PETITIONER. Case
No. 14-RC-2406. August 17,1954
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Harold B. Norman, hear-
ing 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 :
The Employer, Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, is a church or-
ganization with headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. Its principal
purpose is to teach the gospel. In furtherance thereof, it owns and
operates Radio Station KFUO, which is involved in this proceeding.
Station KFUO, which is licensed by the Federal Communications
Commission, is located on the campus of Concordia Seminary, Clay-
ton, Missouri, a seminary for the training of Lutheran ministers.
It operates on power of 5,000 watts and its broadcasts may be heard
I The Employer 's name appears as amended at the hearing.
109 NLRB No. 122.
860 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
within a 75- to 150-mile radius of Clayton, Missouri , an area which
includes Illinois and occasionally Tennessee and Kentucky.
Station KFUO broadcasts only religious programs and music, clas-
sical music, and public service programs. It is not affiliated with any
of the national networks. However, once each week a religious wor-
ship program, "The Lutheran Hour," is piped from KFUO to a St.
Louis commercial radio station for rebroadcasting on the Mutual
Broadcasting System. The Employer neither pays nor is paid for this
service.
The Employer does not operate the radio station for profit. The
station sells no advertising and receives no compensation for the pro-
grams which it broadcasts. It is supported entirely by vountary con-
tributions. In 1953, it made out-of-State purchases valued at approxi-
mately $3,700. It subscribes to the news service of the United Press
for which it annually pays about $5,000. It also makes a nominal
annual payment of $1 to Broadcast Music Incorporated for permis-
sion to broadcast music copyrighted by the latter. It makes no pay-
ment at all to ASCAP for the use of that organization's copyrighted
music.
The Employer contends that it is not engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act, and even if it is so engaged the Board should
not, in the exercise of its discretion, assert jurisdiction.
Without deciding whether in its operation of Station KFUO the
Employer falls within the jurisdiction of the Act, we find that it would
not effectuate the policies of the Act to assert such jurisdiction over a
religious organization which operates the station on a nonprofit and
noncommercial basis in connection with and in furtherance of its re-
ligious objectives 2 Accordingly, we shall dismiss the petition.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
MEMBERS MURDOCK and PETERSON, dissenting :
We dissent from the majority's decision to dismiss the petition in
this case.
The Employer's radio broadcasts are heard regularly in 2 States,
and at times in 2 other States. It is regulated by the Federal Com-
munications Commission, it subscribes to the United Press, it pur-
chases supplies outside the State, it broadcasts market quotations for
the benefit of farmers in the area, it disseminates news, and its opera-
tions involve the constant use of channels of interstate commerce.
These facts clearly indicate that it is an instrumentality or channel of
interstate commerce 3 Neither the fact that it is a religious organi-
2 Cf. The Trustees of Columbia University , 97 NLRB 424.
8 Associated Press v. N. L. R. B., 301 U. S. 103.
GULF OIL CORPORATION 861
zation' nor the fact that it is not operated for profit,5 detracts from
its status as an instrumentality of commerce. The Board clearly has
jurisdiction over it.
In WBSR, Inc.,e the Board reaffirmed its policy of asserting juris-
diction over instrumentalities and channels of commerce, including
radio stations. We know of no reason why this salutary policy should
be discontinued merely because the radio station in question is operated
by a religious organization . The Columbia University case cited by
the majority is inapposite as it did not involve an instrumentality of
commerce.
If a radio station's operations exert sufficient impact on commerce
to warrant regulation by the Federal Communications Commission,
we believe that should be sufficient to warrant this Board in asserting
jurisdiction over it. To do otherwise is to permit the anomalous
situation of subjecting all aspects of the Employer's operations to
regulation by the Federal Government except its labor relations.
Surely this Board should need no reminder of the disruption of the
orderly operation of the radio station such a decision makes possible,
by permitting the institution, by either the Employer or the Petitioner,
of practices which this Act is designed to prevent.
Accordingly, we find that the Employer is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the Act, and that it would effectuate the policies
of the Act to assert jurisdiction over it.
' Cf. Mitchell v. Pilgrims Holiness Church Corporation , 210 F . 2d 879, 882.
5 Associated Press v. N. L. R. B., supra.
6 91 NLRB 630.
GULF OIL CORPORATION and INDEPENDENT UNION FOR SERVICE STATION
EMPLOYEES OF GULF OIL CORPORATION , PETITIONER and GARAGE,
PARKING AND SERVICE STATION EMPLOYEES UNION, LOCAL 596, IN-
TERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS , CHAUFFEURS, WARE-
HOUSEMEN AND HELPERS OF AMERICA , AFL. Case No. 4-RC-0246.
August 17, 1954
Decision and Order
Pursuant to an agreement of the Employer, Petitioner, and Inter-
venor, a consent election was held on February 5,1954, among the em-
ployees of the Employer in the appropriate bargaining unit. There-
after, on March 23, 1954, the Petitioner, having received a majority
of the valid votes cast in the election,' was certified as the representa-
tive of the above employees. On June 18, 1954, the Intervenor filed a
motion with the Board alleging that the Petitioner had been dissolved
by majority action of its membership and had affiliated with the In-
tervenor, and requesting that the certification be amended by substi-
' Petitioner received 51 votes ; Intervenor , 40 ; and no union, 4.
109 NLRB No. 127.