Michigan Wisconsin Pipe Line Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 4, 1967

164 N.L.R.B. 359 (N.L.R.B. 1967)

MICHIGAN WISCONSIN PIPE LINE CO. 359
Michigan Wisconsin Pipe Line Company and
International Chemical Workers Union,
Petitioner . Case 7-RC-7422.
May 4,1967
DECISION ON REVIEW AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MCCULLOCH AND MEMBERS FANNING
AND BROWN
On September 28, 1966, the Regional Director for
Region 7 issued a Decision and Order in the above-
entitled proceeding in which he found , inter alia,
that the unit sought by the Petitioner was
inappropriate and he dismissed the petition.
Thereafter, in accordance with the National Labor
Relations Board's Rules and Regulations, as
amended, the Petitioner filed a timely request for
review of the Regional Director's Decision on the
ground that he departed from established Board
policy. The Employer filed opposition thereto.
On November 29, 1966, the National Labor
Relations Board by telegraphic order granted the
request for review. Thereafter, the Employer filed a
motion to vacate the order granting the request for
review, a motion for oral argument, and a brief on
review. The Petitioner filed a brief on review.
The Board has reviewed the entire record in this
case, including the briefs of the parties,' and makes
the following findings:
As found by the Regional Director, the Employer
operates as a public utility engaged in the
transmission, storage, and sale of natural gas to
utility companies that sell to consumers. The
Employer operates a pipeline which originates in the
gas producing fields in the Texas panhandle and
western Oklahoma, extends in a northeasterly
direction to just south of Lake Michigan, where it
divides into two branches, one leading into
Wisconsin and the other into Michigan, to a
terminus at the Woolfolk compressor station (near
Big Rapids, Michigan) where the gas is injected into
gas storage fields. Through its wholly owned
subsidiary, American Louisiana Pipe Line
Company, the Employer also operates a pipeline
which begins in southern Louisiana, where it gathers
gas from producing fields, and extends northward to
Willow Run, Michigan. By means of an east-west
linkage, it connects with the Michigan branch of the
Texas pipeline at a point in southern Michigan near
Chicago. At Willow Run, the line appears to connect
with the pipeline system of Michigan Consolidated
Gas Company (hereinafter referred to as
Consolidated) which is also linked with the
Employer's system at the Woolfolk station, at
various underground gas storage fields, and at other
points in Michigan. The Woolfolk station and the gas
storage fields, including the interconnecting
pipelines, are properties leased by the Employer
from Consolidated. The Employer recently leased
from Consolidated a compressor station at Reed
City, Michigan, some 25 miles to the north of the
Woolfolk station, two storage fields, one called Lo
Reed and the other, Michigan Stray, and pipelines
connecting the newly acquired station with the fields
and tying in with Woolfolk station . Throughout its
entire system, the Employer employs an estimated
700 to 800 production and maintenance employees.
There is no history of collective bargaining for any of
these employees.
The unit set forth in the petition was confined to
all employees at the Employer's Woolfolk station
and its Big Rapids Pipeline District, which
encompassed all the storage fields (four or five in
number) linked to the Woolfolk station, located at
distances of up to 45 miles from such station. At the
hearing, the Petitioner indicated a willingness to
include in the requested unit the employees at the
newly acquired Reed City compressor station and
related Lo Reed and Michigan Stray storage fields.
The Employer's position is that only a systemwide
unit is appropriate.
The Employer's headquarters are in Detroit,
Michigan, and consist of the dispatching department
and four principal operating departments. The
dispatching department relays instructions to the 34
compressor stations located at various points along
the pipeline system determining the gas pressures to
be maintained and the amount of inflow and outflow
of gas at the various supply points in the system. The
principal supply points are stations near the gas
producing fields. In addition, there are supply points
connecting the Employer's pipeline with other
pipeline systems. Finally, from the Woolfolk and
Reed City compressor stations, the Employer injects
gas into the aforementioned underground storage
fields, which serve as sources of supply for Michigan
Consolidated Gas and other gas utilities located in
upper Michigan, and as a reserve supply for
reinjection into the Employer's pipeline system
during periods of peak demand.
Like the dispatching department, the four
principal operating departments (compressor,
pipeline, measurement, and communications) are
headquartered at Detroit. Reporting to Vice
President Trebilcott, the chief operations officer, are
a vice president in charge of operations and a
general superintendent of operations. There is also a
general superintendent of each of the major
operating departments. Overall supervision is
further subdivided, where necessary, in order to
balance the supervisory load.
The general superintendent of the compressor
department has two assistants , each in charge of two
1 As the record, including briefs of the parties, adequately Employer's motion to vacate the order granting the request for
presents the issues and positions of the parties , the request for review is hereby denied
oral argument is hereby denied For reasons expressed herein, the
164 NLRB No. 39
360 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
divisions. Each division has a superintendent
maintaining an office within his territorial division.
Each compressor station is headed by a
superintendent. The Woolfolk station, because of its
greater horsepower capacity, has an assistant
superintendent. The Woolfolk station is one of seven
within the Muncie, Indiana, division. The next
closest compressor station is about 80 miles to the
south. The Reed City compressor station as yet has
not been attached to any of the existing
administrative divisions and, at present, its
superintendent reports directly to Detroit.
The general superintendent of the pipeline
department also has two assistants , each in charge
of three divisions. Again, each division has a
superintendent maintaining an office within his
territorial division. The pipeline divisions are further
subdivided into districts, each under a
superintendent operating from an office within his
territorial district. Each pipeline district except the
Big Rapids district is responsible for the
maintenance of a segment of the main pipeline. The
Big Rapids district is the northernmost of three
districts within the Grand Rapids division and is
responsible for the operation and maintenance of the
storage fields, supplied by the Woolfolk and Reed
City compressor stations, related processing and
dehydration facilities,' and interconnecting
pipelines.:'
The communications department operates
through two divisions. The measurement
department has no subdivisions. There do not
appear to be any measuring stations operating in
conjunction with the storage fields. Further, the
record does not indicate that these two departments
utilize production and maintenance employees or
that any of the employees of these departments are
located in the Big Rapids area.
There are 37 employees at the Woolfolk station:
16 operators, 20 maintenance men,4 and 1 machinist.
Exclusive of the Lo Reed and Michigan Stray
storage fields, there are 20 employees in the Big
Rapids pipeline district: 17 field storage operators,5
2 heavy-truck drivers, and 1 welder. The record
indicates that at the Reed City compressor station
and the 2 storage fields linked with it, there are 37
employees in similar classifications. While there
appears to be no interchange between the Woolfolk
and Reed City compressor stations and the storage
field employees, the Austin storage field is
z Gas removed from the Lo Reed storage field is "scrubbed" at
a processing plant to remove impurities before it is sold or
reinjected into the main pipeline Gas removed from all storage
fields is also conditioned by dehydration, before sale or
reinjection in the main pipeline
3 The employees working at the Lo Reed and Michigan Stray
storage fields have been attached for administrative purposes to
the Big Rapids district.
The maintenance men are general utility men , performing a
variety of functions at the station
5 The field operators, in addition to performing the functions of
maintenance men, have technical skills necessary for the
operation and maintenance of equipment and devices found only
contiguous with the Woolfolk station and is a supply
base for the other storage fields in the Big Rapids
district.
Although the requested employees share overall
intermediate supervision with employees at other
stations and pipeline districts, the station and
district superintendents have a degree of autonomy.
Thus, they initiate the hire and discharge of
employees. While certain orders relative to gas
transmission and other operations are received from
the Detroit offices, the day-to-day operations are
directed, and duties are assigned, by the station and
district superintendents.
The evidence presented by the Employer, while
showing substantial temporary interchange of
pipeline employees during the first half of 1966, does
not indicate the extent, if any, to which they involved
the Big Rapids district. The Employer testified
generally that there were temporary and permanent
transfers from location to location, depending on
conditions. The Employer also gave evidence of
temporary transfers of employees from other
locations to the "Big Rapids Area" during the years
since 1962, involving employees in 5-to-7
classifications. However, these transfers involved
the operation, pickup, or delivery of heavy
equipment, installations of equipment, and special
projects; e.g., "upgrade Austin to Goodwell." No
evidence was presented to show temporary transfer
of employees out of the area to other locations.
The Board has generally held that, because of the
inherent integration and interdependence of
operations in public utilities, a systemwide unit is
the optimum unit for purposes of collective
bargaining.' However, the Board has also recognized
that units of lesser scope may be appropriate in
certain situations.7
As described above, the Employer's compressor
and pipeline departments are subdivided along
geographical as well as administrative lines.8 The
pipeline department employees requested are all the
pipeline employees in the Big Rapids district. All the
requested compressor station employees at Reed
City and Woolfolk, together with the requested
pipeline employees, are located in a contiguous area
and are related because of the unique storage field
function which they perform at the Michigan
terminus of the line. Thus the employees sought all
work within a well-defined geographical area.
Moreover, there is no record evidence of significant
in the storage fields The Employer in its entire operation has only
21 storage field operators Apparently there are 4 at the Lo Reed
and Michigan Stray storage fields
6 Idaho Power Company, 126 NLRB 547, The Hartford Electric
fight Company, 122 NLRB 1421.
' See Arkansas-Missouri Power Company, 152 NLRB 1600,
Louisiana Gas Service Co , 126 NLRB 147
' Because of the Employer's method of subdividing its
operating departments to accommodate supervisory load, it would
be impossible to establish any major administrative subdivision of
the system in which the geographic bounds of compressor and
pipeline divisions would coincide, short of the entire pipeline
system.
MICHIGAN WISCONSIN PIPE LINE CO. 361
interchange of employees between this area and
other segments of the Employer's pipeline system.
In the circumstances, we conclude that the
employees sought by the Petitioner, under its
amended request, share a community of interest
separate and apart from employees working in other
segments of the Employer's pipeline system, and
constitute an appropriate unit.'
Accordingly, we find that a question affecting
commerce exists concerning the representation of
certain employees of the Employer within the
meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the
Act, and that the following unit is appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9(b) of the Act:
All production and maintenance employees of the
Employer's Woolfolk and Reed City compressor
stations, and its Big Rapids pipeline district, located
in the Big Rapids, Michigan, area, excluding all
other employees, professional employees,
watchmen, guards, and supervisors as defined in the
Act.
[Text of Direction of Election' ° omitted from
publication.]
' Whether or not other less-than - systemwide units may be
appropriate for the Employer's employees would depend, of
course, on all the facts and circumstances concerning the units
specifically requested
10 An election eligibility list, containing the names and
addresses of all the eligible voters, must be filed by the Employer
with the Regional Director for Region 7 within 7 days after the
date of this Decision on Review and Direction of Election The
Regional Director shall make the list available to all parties to the
election No extension of time to file this list shall be granted by
the Regional Director except in extraordinary circumstances
Failure to comply with this requirement shall be grounds for
setting aside the election whenever proper objections are filed
Excelsior Underwear Inc , 156 NLRB 1236