Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 13, 1943

48 N.L.R.B. 1176 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter Of PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS
Case No. h--5027. -Decided April 13, 1943
Jurisdiction : gas and electric utility industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question : dis-
pute as to appropriate unit ; labor organization which did not submit evidence
indicating its interest among employees in the unit found appropriate, but
which had a substantial membership among employees in the company' s system-
wide operations, accorded a place on the ballot ; election necessary.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : divisional unit coterminus with the
extent of self-organization, found appropriate.
- Mr. Thomas J. Straub, Mr. J. Paul St. Sure, and Miss Anne
McDonald, of San Francisco, Calif., for the Company.
Mr. George A. Mulkey, of San Francisco, Calif., for the I. B. E. W.
Gladstein, Grossman, Margolis, and Sawyer, of Oakland, Calif., and
Mr. Gene H. Chance, of San Francisco, Calif., for the U. W. O. C.
Mrs. Augusta Spaulding, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition duly filed by International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, herein called the I. B. E. W., alleging that a question affect-
ing commerce had arisen concerning the representation of employees
of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Francisco, California, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided for
an appropriate hearing, upon due notice, before William B. Esterman,
Trial'Examiner. Said hearing was held at San Francisco, California,
on March 19, 1913. The Company, the I. B. E. W., and Utility Work-
ers Organizing Committee, herein called the U. W. O. C., appeared,
participated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine
and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the
issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made at the hearing are free,
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
48 N. L. R. B., No. 139.
1176
PACIFIC 'GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY 1177
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
Pacific Gas and Electric Company is a public utility, corporation,
which has its principal office and place of business at San Francisco,
California. It is engaged principally in the business of generating,
buying, transmitting, selling, and distributing electrical energy; of
buying, transporting, selling, and distributing natural gas; and of
manufacturing, transporting, selling, and distributing manufactured
gas. All such gas and electricity is used for light, heat, and power
purposes in central and northern California. The Company owns
and operates 49 hydroelectric, generating plants and 12 steam electric
'generating plants in the State. As an incident to its gas and 'electric
business , the Company sells gas and electric appliances at retail. In
certain small cities and town in rural areas it distributes and sells
'water for domestic and irrigation purposes. It purchases and sells
steam to customers in San Francisco and Oakland, California, and it
operates a streetcar and bus system at Sacramento, California.
Light houses and aids to navigation along the coast of central and
northern California are operated by electricity furnished by the Com-
pany. Railroads,'telegraph and telephone systems, and radio broad-
casting stations in the same area are dependent upon the Company for
the electric power indispensable to their respective operations. In
1936 the Company purchased raw materials, consisting principally of
steel, pipe, transformers, cables, switches, wire, gas and electric ap-
pliances, poles, insulators, fittings, and other similar materials, valued
at nearly $2,000,000 all of which were manufactured or originated
outside California. Since that time the business of the Company and
its operations have increased in extent and volume. In'1939 the Com-
pany acquired the physical properties and operations of San Joaquin
Light and Power Company which it is now merging into its already
extensive utility system.'
"At the hearing the parties stipulated that the entire records in Case No. R -274, Cases
Nos. R-4087 to R-4092, inclusive , Cases Nos . R-4405 to R-4411, inclusive , Case' No.
R-4681 , and Case No . R-4771, all former representation proceedings involving employees
of the Company , should be deemed and considered part of the record in the instant proceed-
ing and that the Board should resort to any part of these records for its findings with
respect to the issues herein. The entire records in Case No. R-274, Cases Nos. R-4087 to
R-4092, inclusive , Cases Nos . R-4405 to R-4411, inclusive , Case No R-4681 , and Case No.
R-4771, including the pleadings , the evidence taken, the testimony heard, the exhibits
submitted , and the several orders entered thereon , are hereby made part of the record in
the instant proceeding See Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and United
Electrical & Radio Workers of America , 3 N. L. R B. 835 ; 4 N. L. R. B. 180 ; Matter of Pa-
cifio Gas and Electric Company and United Electrical and Radio Workers of America;
Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and United Electrical, Radio and Machine
Workers of America, 13 N. L. R B. 268 ; Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and
Utility Workers Organizing Committee, C. I. 0., 40 N. L. R . B. 591 ; 41 N. L. R. B. 1182;
1178 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is a labor organ-
ization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, admitting
to membership employees of the Company.
Utility Workers Organizing Committee is a labor organization affili-
ated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations , admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
The I. B. E. W. and the U. W. O.-C. agree that a unit restricted
to employees in the Company's Natural Gas Division is an appropri-
ate bargaining unit. With respect to the proposed unit, the Company
takes the position that the only unit of its employees appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining is a system-wide unit coextensive
with the Company's public utility operations and that it will not
recognize any bargaining representative for employees within any
other unit.
A statement prepared by a Field Examiner of the Board and intro-
duced into evidence at the hearing indicates that the I. B. E. W.
represents a substantial number of employees, in the unit herein found
appropriate.',
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning
the representation of employees of the Company, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the National Labor
Relations Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
As noted in Section III, above, the Company takes the position that
the only unit of its employees appropriate for bargaining purposes
is a system-wide unit coextensive with its public service. Subject to
the right to urge upon the Board the appropriateness of a system-
wide unit when their organization of the Company's employees as-
Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, et at, 44 N L R B 665, Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Inter-
national Brotherhood of Elect,scal Woi kers , et at , 45 N L R B , No 78 ; Matter of Pacific
Gas and Electric Company and Utility Workers Organizing Committee , C I 0 , 46 N L.
R B , No 145 , and Matter of Pacific Gas and Electric Company and International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers, 47 N L R B , No 24
2 The I B. E. W. submitted a list of its members employed in the Natural Gas Division
of the Company's operations. The list contains 44 names, of which 32 are the names of
employees of the Company appearing on the February 15, 1943, pay roll for the Natural
Gas Division ., There are approximately 74 employees in the unit herein found appropriate
The U W. O. C . submitted no specific evidence of its representation among employees in
the appropriate unit. The U . W. O. C. and the I. B. E. W . are each engaged in organizing
the Company ' s employees in the several departments and divisions of its extensive utility
system.
PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY' 1179
sumes a proportionate scale, the I. B. E. W. and the U. W. 0. C.
agree that employees in the outside forces of the Company's Natural
Gas Division constitute an appropriate separate bargaining unit.
The Company originally served all its gas customers with artificial
gas, which it manufactured in its several gas plants and which it
distributed and sold in the several geographical divisions of its utility
system. An extension of the,Company's business operations included
the inauguration of the general use 'of natural gas. Problems arose
concerning its control and transmission throughout the Company's
system without interference with' other already established normal
operations. The Company sells large quantities of natural gas, but it
does not own or operate natural gas wells. It buys natural gas from
the owners of approximately 700 privately operated wells, scattered,
throughout the `State, and conveys this gas by pipe lines through its
entire utility system. The control of the volume of natural gas to
be purchased and admitted into the Company's transmission system
must be hourly coordinated with demands of its gas customers. This
,requires absolute control,of the gas supply and knowledge of condi-
tions and needs prevailing throughout the system. To purchase the
proper amounts of gas as needed at the wells and to transport the gas
from the wells through transmission pipe lines to distribution points
where it maybe drawn off for ultimate distribution to its customers
by local gas employees in the several geographical divisions, the Com-
pany created a new operating division called the Natural Gas Division
and vested in the manager of that division absolute control of the
purchase of natural gas and its transmission through the Company's
pipe lines.
The Natural Gas Division, under its division manager, has its head-
quarters in the Company's general- offices at 245 Market Street, San
Francisco, where the gas control office is established. There continu-
ously on shift are control operators who, maintain records of the de-
mands made on the system and prevailing gas pressures. Employees
of the Natural Gas Division include the division manager, these con-
trol operators or measurement engineers, office employees, and outside
field employees.
There are approximately 74 field (employees in the outside forces of
the Natural Gas Division. Four are located in the East Bay Division,
3 in the Stockton Division, 14 in the San Jose Division, 7 in the Coast
'Valley Division, and 46 in the San Joaquin Power Division, of whom
44 work at the Company's compressor station at Kettleman Hills. At
Kettleman Hills the Company employs engineers; oilers, repairmen,
mechanics of various kinds in the station and in the garage, warehouse-
men, a yard man, and certain camp employees. At its various other
stations along the pipe lines the Company employs patrolmen, maint -
1180 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
nance men , and measurement ,men or control operators. Their duties
include not only, the patrolling of the pipe lines, but the elimination of
hazards which may develop during storms, the making of, minor re-
pairs, and the delivery of materials to locations where emergency re-
pair work may be under way. The measurement men control the
pressure on the transmission lines through the operation of valves on
incoming and outgoing pipe lines and they record the hourly flow of
gas, at certain periods during the day. Employees of the Natural Gas
Division stationed along the pipe lines are physically isolated to a
considerable extent from other employees in the same division. They
frequently perform their work with the assistance and cooperation of
employees belonging to other operating departmental and divisional
sectors of the Company's vast utility operations. The control of all
operations relating to gas transmission rests, however, solely in the
manager of the Natural Gas Division and his assistants and in no other
administrative unit of the Company's operations. Employees of the
Company are not transferred from one operating division or depart-
ment to another except by formal action of the personnel department.
Employees of the Natural Gas Division ,do not become a part of the
geographical divisions where their work is, physically performed.
They have been excluded from established bargaining units restricted
'to employees under the direction and supervision of the several geo-
graphical divisional managers.
In the previous representation proceedings involving employees of
the Company, cited in footnote 1, above, the Board found that the
several geographical divisions and other over-all operating depart-
ments of the general office of the Company's utility system had suffi-
cient cohesion and autonomy to function as separate independent bar-
gaining units for employees working respectively therein. Since, the
Company has similarly set aside the Natural Gas Division as a sepa-
rate operating division to provide for the purchase and transmission
of natural gas throughout its entire system', we find that employees
assigned to this sector of the Company's projects have sufficient cohe-
sion and autonomy to constitute them a separate appropriate bargain-
ing unit apart from employees in other divisions and departments of
the Company.
The I. B. E. W. would include within its proposed unit all employees
in the outside forces of the Company's Natural Gas Division, including
outside field employees, workers employed in the pumping stations,
.substations, gas plants, and other shops and plants, meter readers,
estimators, mappers, inspectors, watchmen, and building service em-
ployees,3 and would exclude officials, executive officers, and clerical and
' 8 Employees in similar, categories ` were included in the several bargaining units found
appropriate for employees in the respective geographical divisions - of the - Company's opera-
tions.
, PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY 1181
office employees . Neither the U. W. O. C . nor the Company made any
objections , to the inclusion or the exclusion of employees in these named
categories . Within the several bargaining units which we have hither-
to found appropriate for outside production and maintenance em-
ployees in other operating departments and in the geographical divi-
sions of the Company, we have included working foremen who have
no authority to hire or to discharge employees under their supervision.
and we have excluded other foremen and other supervisory employees.
The record does not disclose the categories of supervisory employees
in the Company 's Natural Gas Division . We shall follow the pattern
established in other units of the Company 's employees and shall ex-
'elude from the unit herein found appropriate supervisory employees
withinLthe same categories.
We find that all employees in the -outside forces of the Company's
Natural Gas Division , including outside field employees , workers
employed in the pumping stations , substations , gas plants, and other
shops and plants, and meter readers , estimators , mappers, inspectors,
watchmen , building service employees , and working foremen who have
no authority to hire or to discharge employees under their supervision,
but excluding other foremen and supervisory employees , officials, exec-
utive officers , and clerical and office employees , constitute a unit appro-
priate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We find that the question concerning representation which has
arisen can best be resolved by an election by secret ballot.
The U. W. O. C. desires to participate in the election . The U. W;
O. C. did not submit any evidence to indicate its interest among em-
-ployees in . the unit found appropriate above. For this reason the
I. B. E. W . opposes the participation of the U. W. O. C. in an election
.among these employees at this time . The I. B. E. W. admits that
the U. W. O. C. has a substantial membership among employees in
the Company's system-wide operations .whom both labor organizations
would include in a single unit for bargaining purposes when condi-
tions throughout the Company's operations make bargaining on this
basis a practical possibility. Since the parties eventually contemplate
bargaining on this extensive scale and since both organizations have
by mutual consent participated in the elections previously held by
the Board covering employees in the several geographical divisions
and over-all operating departments of the Company 's operations, we
shall provide that both the I. B. E. W . and the U. W. O.'C. participate
in the instant election which we shall direct.
1182 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS' BOARD
Those eligible to vote in the election shall be all employees of the
Company in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the
date of the Direction of Election, subject to the limitations and addi-
tions set forth therein.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9 (c)' of the National Labor Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Pacific Gas and
Electric Company, San Francisco, California, an election by secret
ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty
(30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervisioli,of the Regional Director for the Twentieth Region, acting
in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and
subject to Article III, Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations,
among all employees of the Company within the unit found appro-
priate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including
employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they
were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including em-
ployees in the armed forces of the United States who present them-
selves in person at the polls, but excluding employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause, to determine whether they desire
to be represented by International Brotherhood of Electrical Work-
ers, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, or by Utility
Workers Organizing Committee, affiliated with the Congress of In-
dustrial Organizations, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or
by neither.