Meredith Engineering Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Mar 20, 1953

103 N.L.R.B. 807 (N.L.R.B. 1953)

MEREDITH ENGINEERING COMPANY 807
activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or
protection.
WE WILL NOT in any like or related manner interfere with, restrain, or
coerce employees in the exercise of the right to self-organization , to form
labor organizations , to join or assist LOCAL 174, AUTO SALESMEN' S UNION,
UNITED OPTICAL & INSTRUMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA , CIO, or any other
labor organization , to bargain collectively through representatives of their
own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose
of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection , or to refrain
from any and all of such activities , except to the extent that such right may
be affected by an agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as
a condition of employment , as authorized in Section 8 (a) (3) of the Act.
WE WILL offer to Michael Schiro immediate employment as a new-car
salesman , or other position substantially equivalent to that for which he
applied in February 1952, without prejudice to his seniority or other rights
and privileges ; and make him whole for any loss of pay suffered as a result
of the discrimination against him.
All of our employees are free to become or remain members of the above-named
union or any other labor organization . We will not discriminate in regard to
hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment because
of membership in or protected activity on behalf of any such labor organization.
MONART MOTORS COMPANY ( A CORPORATION),
Employer.
Dated -------------------- By ------------------------------------------
(Representative ) (Title)
This notice must remain posted for 60 days from the date hereof, and must not
be altered , defaced, or covered by any other material.
MEREDITH ENGINEERING COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF
THEATRICAL STAGE EMPLOYEES AND MOVING PICTURE MACHINE
OPERATORS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA , AFL, PETITIONER
MEREDITH ENGINEERING COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL , PETITIONER . Cases Nos . 21-RC-
2656 and 921-RC-2828 . March 20,1953
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed in Case No. 21-RC-2656, a hearing was
held before James W. Cherry, Jr., hearing officer. Thereafter, upon
a subsequent petition duly filed in Case No. 21-RC-2828, Case No.
21-RC-2656 was remanded to the Regional Director of the Twenty-
first Region and consolidated by order of this Board. Hearing was
held on the consolidated cases before Leo Fischer, hearing officer. The
hearing officers' rulings made at the hearings are free from prejudicial
error and are hereby affirmed.
103 NLRB No. 86.
808 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with these cases to a three-
member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Styles and Peterson].
Upon the entire record in these cases, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the
Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees 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 :
At Phoenix, Arizona, the Employer operates a television, or TV,
and radio, or AM, station, consisting of a studio and 2 transmitters,
situated 400 feet and 6 miles, respectively, from the studio. The
station is administratively divided into sundry departments, of which
the ones in issue in this proceeding are known as the production de-
partment,) the facilities department,2 and the engineering department.
The parties generally agree that a single unit of the Employer's
engineering department employees, including studio and transmitter
engineers employed in the TV and AM operations, constitute an ap-
propriate unit. The parties disagree solely with respect to the unit
treatment of employees in the facilities department. The Petitioner
in Case No. 21-RC-2656, herein called IATSE, would include them
in the unit of engineering department employees; and the Employer
and the Petitioner in Case No. 21-RC-2828, herein called the IBEW,
would exclude them. IATSE and the IBEW, in the alternative, seek
to represent the Employer's employees in whatever bargaining unit or
units the Board may find appropriate.
A total of 20 engineers, including 16 TV engineers and 4 AM
engineers, is employed in the Employer's engineering department.
There is no difference in the training required of TV and AM engi-
neers, and TV engineers regularly and frequently assist in AM opera-
tions whenever the need arises. All engineers are paid at the same
rate and enjoy the same conditions of employment. Under these
circumstances we therefore agree with the parties that an appropriate
unit of engineering department employees at the Employer's station
should include both AM and TV engineers.'
Turning to a consideration of the facilities department, the follow-
ing brief description of the steps taken by the Employer's organiza-
1 The production department is also known as the program department.
' The facilities department includes a staff artist , sometimes referred to as the art
department.
3 A H. Belo Corporation, 101 NLRB 268.
MEREDITH ENGINEERING COMPANY 809
tion in producing a typical show will serve to illustrate the role played
by this disputed department.
A client of the Employer who desires to buy time on the air consults
with a salesman, who, after becoming acquainted with the client's
preferences as to type of program, refers him to the Employer's execu-
tive producer. The executive producer, after determining the proper
procedure to be employed in producing the program and consulting
with the client in that regard, assigns 1 of the Employer's 8 producer-
directors the job of producing the show. The producer-director con-
tacts, in preparing the show for production, in addition to writers,
announcers, and other production department employees, the director
of the facilities department to arrange for the creation of the back-
ground, scenery, props, special effects, and miscellaneous devices to be
used during the production of the show on the air. The executive
producer does not consult with the director of the engineering depart-
ment until just before the production of the show, unless the show
is an unusual one which requires special engineering techniques.
The facilities department employees spend up to 80 percent of their
time under the direction of the producer-director in the preparation
of the show for production. The rest of their time they spend in
routine activities, including attendance at rehearsals, assembling of
stage properties, assistance in the production of shows, and the dis-
mantling of stage properties following the completion of shows.
When assisting in the production of a show, the facilities department
employees frequently join with engineering department employees in
a sort of utility crew, the purpose of which is to perform a variety of
manual jobs essential to the successful production of the show on the
air. The functions of the facilities department employees in this crew
include the duties of floormen, boom men, lightmen, cablemen, and
microphone operators ; these duties are of a routine nature, as dis-
tinguished from the more technical type of work regularly performed
in the engineering department'
IATSE contends that, in view of the close collaboration between
facilities department and engineering department employees during
the production of shows, the two groups should be included in the
same unit. We do not agree. The facts that the major portion of the
work of the facilities department employees is of a creative nature,
performed in collaboration with other production personnel; that
they spend only a minor portion of their time with engineering de-
partment employees in the performance of jobs of a routine, rather
4 The function of the facilities department in thus collaborating with the engineering
department as a utility crew is unusual in the industry and appears to have been occasioned
by the rapid growth of, and the lack of available technicians to perform the utility crew
functions at, the Employer 's station
810 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
than of a technical or engineering, nature; and that they are separately-
supervised, lead us to conclude that these employees have work in-
terests which are essentially dissimilar from those of the engineering-
department employees and should therefore be excluded from a bar-
gaining unit of those employees.
We find that all engineering department employees at the Em-
ployer's Phoenix, Arizona, radio and television station, including
studio and transmitter engineers and operations supervisors and the-
AM transmitter supervisor,6 but excluding directors, writers, an-
nouncers, and other production department employees; the staff artist
and other facilities department employees; office employees; janitors;:
guards; all other employees; and supervisors as defined in the Act,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining:
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this=
volume.]
e The parties stipulate that the two operations supervisors are not supervisors as
defined in the Act, and should therefore be included in the unit ; they are unable to^
agree, however, with respect to the status of the AM transmitter supervisor. The
operations supervisors spend 80 to 90 percent of their time performing work similar
to that of other engineers and the remainder in the routine direction of engineers,
in the course of which they assign engineers in accordance with a daily operations
schedule and direct them to make equipment adjustments. The AM transmitter su-
pervisor, responsible for the technical operation of the transmitter, spends 50 per-
cent of his time performing work similar to that of the other transmitter engineers and
the remainder in nonroutine technical operations , including the making of weekly field
strength measurements , as required by the Employer ' s operating license. The operations
supervisors and the AM transmitter supervisor, by virtue of their greater experience and
responsibilities , receive $25 and $55 more per month , respectively , than the employees
with whom they work. They have no power to hire, discharge , or transfer employees,
and their recommendations concerning employees are subject to independent investiga-
tion. We find that they are not supervisors as defined in the Act and shall include them
in the unit . The Fort Industry Company, 88 NLRB 527; Wodaam Corporation , 83 NLRB
335.
WEIRTON ICE AND COAL SUPPLY COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS , CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN AND
HELPERS OF AMERICA, LOCAL UNION No. 428, AFL. Case No.
6-CA-401. March 00, 1953
Decision and Order
On September 11, 1952, Trial Examiner Earl S. Bellman issued his
Intermediate Report in the above-entitled proceeding, finding that
the Respondent had engaged in and was engaging in certain unfair
labor practices within the meaning of the Act, and recommending
that it cease and desist therefrom and take certain affirmative action,
as set forth in the copy of the Intermediate Report attached hereto.
103 NLRB No. 76.