Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 10, 1945

61 N.L.R.B. 468 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY and UTILITY
WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, LOCAL 133, CIO
Case No. 20-R-1269.-Decided April 10, 1945
Mr. Thomas J. Straub, Mr. J. Paul St. Sure, and Miss Anne Mc-
Donald, of San Francisco, Calif., for the Company.
Gladstein, Grossman, Sawyer & Edises, by Mr. Bertram Edises,
of Oakland, Calif., and Miss Angela Ward and Mr. Philip Koritz, 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 Utility Workers Organizing Commit-
tee, Local 133, CIO, herein called the U. W. O. C., alleging that- a
question affecting 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
John Paul Jennings, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at
San Francisco, California, on February 15, 1945. The Company
and the U. W. O. C. appeared and participated.' Both parties 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. Both parties were afforded opportu-
nity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
1 International Brotherhood of Electrical workers, also served with notice, having advised
the Regional Director that it did not intend to present proof of interest or take part in
the hearing, did not appear.
61 N. L. R. B., No. 61.
468
0
PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
469
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 are used for light, heat, and power
purposes in central and northern California. As an incident to its
gas and electric business the Company sells gas and electric appliances
at retail. In certain small cities and towns in rural ,areas it distrib-
utes and sells water for domestic and irrigation purposes. It pur-
chases and sells steam to customers in San Francisco and Oakland,
California.
The Company is the third largest electric power company in the
United States. It is the sole commercial source of electric energy
and the only practical commercial source of natural and manufac-
tured gas in the central and northern portion of California. The San
Francisco-Oakland area, which is entirely dependent on the Company
for electric energy and gas, is one of the foremost industrial and
commercial centers in the United States. San Francisco is the dis-
tribution center of the West Coast, and as a port ranks second in
the United States in the value of water-borne commerce.
The Company owns and operates 49 hydroelectric generating plants
and 12 steam electric generating plants, all of which are situated in
California. In 1944 its total electrical load, consisting of all electric
energy generated, purchased and received on consignment, was
9,549,129,109 kilowatt hours, of which amount 210,973,569 kilowatt
hours were purchased from California-Oregon Power Company,
which maintains generating plants in both Oregon and California,
and delivered to the Company at Delta, California, approximately
70 miles south of the California-Oregon State line. The entire elec-
trical load of the Company is sold and delivered in California. In
1944 it delivered 43,818,205 kilowatt hours, chiefly for use in Nevada,
to Sierra-Pacific Power Company, which generates and distributes
electric energy in both Nevada and California. The energy is
delivered in the Company's transmission lines to Summit, California,
20 miles west of the Nevada-California State line. There the Com-
pany's transmission lines connect with the transmission lines of Sierra-
Pacific Company, which carry the energy into Nevada.
The Company owns and operates in California a transmission
pipe-line system, including a large gas compressor station, for the
transportation of natural gas in central and northern California.
470 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
It owns and operates 14 gas manufacturing plants, all of which are
situated in California. Ten are stand-by plants reserved against the
interruption of natural gas service. All the plants are operated by
fuel oil or butane produced or purchased in California. Its total
sales of gas in 1944 were 153,052,868,000 cubic feet.
A large number of manufacturing industries, including war in-
dustries, situated in the area served by the Company and engaged in
shipping and receiving commodities in interstate or foreign commerce,
are wholly dependent on the Company for gas and electric power
which are essential to the operation of their plants. The United States
Government purchases large quantities of electricity and gas from the
Company for the purpose, among others, of operating its numerous
post offices and military installations situated in the area served by
the Company. The Company also supplies power to all the news-
papers located in the area which it serves, to the Associated Press, to
the San Francisco and Oakland airports, to the Dow-Jones and Com-
pany ticker service, to oil refineries, shipbuilding and repair concerns
and steamship lines, to navigation aids, interstate railroads, telegraph
and telephone companies, and to radio broadcasting stations.
We find that the Company is engaged in commerce within the mean-
ing of the National Labor Relations Act.
IT. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Utility Workers Organizing Committee is a labor organization
affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admitting to
membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Prior to filing the petition herein, the U. W. O. C. asked the Com-
pany for recognition as bargaining representative of clerical em-
ployees in the San Francisco Division of the Company's operations.
The Company refused recognition, taking the position that the unit
proposed by the U. W. O. C. was not an appropriate bargaining unit.
A statement prepared by a Fields Examiner and introduced into
evidence at the hearing indicates that the U. W. O. C. represents a sub-
stantial number of employees in the unit herein found appropriate.2
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 Act.
2 The U. W. O. C. submitted 53 authorization cards, 1 undated, 1 dated in 1945, and
the remaining dated in 1944, of which 46 bear the names of employees on the Company's
pay roll of January 24, 1945 There are approximately 142 employees in the appropriate
unit.
PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
471
The U. W. 0. C. contends that office and clerical employees in the
San Francisco Division of the Company's operations constitute an
appropriate bargaining unit. The Company takes the position that
the only appropriate unit for these employees is a system-wide unit,
coextensive with its public utility operations. In a prior representa-
tion proceeding's we found that employees in the outside forces of the
San Francisco Division constitute an appropriate bargaining unit.
For reasons which we have fully set forth in other cases dealing with
the scope of bargaining units for office and clerical employees in the
several administrative divisions and operating departments of the
Company's utility system,4 we find that a unit limited to office and
clerical employees in the San Francisco Division is an appropriate
unit for bargaining purposes .5
The Company and the U. W. 0. C. agree that, in accordance with
the Board's usual practice, supervisory and confidential employees be
excluded from the bargaining unit, and it appears that there is no
dispute between them as to the identity of employees so characterized.
We find that all office and clerical employees of Pacific Gas and
Electric Company, San Francisco, California, who are employed in
the San Francisco Division, excluding confidential employees and all
supervisory employees with authority to hire, promote, discharge, dis-
cipline, or otherwise effect changes in the status of employees, or
effectively recommend such action, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining, within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act. .
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
We shall direct that the question concerning representation which
has arisen be resolved by an election by secret ballot among the em-
ployees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding the date of the Direction of Elec-
tion herein, subject to the limitations and additions set forth in the
Direction.
8 45 N. L. R. B. 536.
.49 N . L. R. B. 810 ; 51 N. L R . B. 301 ; 52 N. L. R. B. 1204 ; 55 N. L . R. B. 427; and
57 N. L . R. B. 1129
5 The Company ' s headquarters, called the General Offices, having administrative jurisdic-
tion coextensive with its entire system, are physically located in San Francisco . Clerical
employees in the San Francisco Division , which is a geographical division, local in scope,
occupy, in some instances , office space in a building largely used for the purposes of the
General Offices In view of the administrative plan set up by the Company for the
efficiency of its operations , we find that the common use of building space by employees in
distinctly separate sectors of its operations does not materially affect the appropriateness
of their separation for bargaining purposes.
472 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
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 Relations
Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Rela-
tions Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is hereby
Dm mm 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
supervision 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, Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regula-
tions, among the employees in the unit found appropriate 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 employees in the armed forces
of the United States who present themselves in person at the polls, 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
election, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented
by Utility Workers Organizing Committee, Local 133, CIO, for the
purposes of collective bargaining.
CHAIRMAN MILLIS took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.