Philadelphia Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 12, 1954

110 N.L.R.B. 320 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

320 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We find that Kreamelmeyer is not a supervisor, and we overrule the
challenge to his ballot.
Prior to December 1953, Hughes was a supervisor. Since that time,
however, she has spent all of her time doing rank-and-file work, and
no one works under her supervision. We find that Hughes is not a
supervisor, and we overrule the challenge to her ballot.
Ramsey is engaged in the repair of machinery in the plant. We find
that he is a maintenance employee, and included in the appropriate
unit. Accordingly, we overrule the challenge to his ballot.
As we have overruled the challenges to certain ballots, we shall
direct that these ballots be opened and counted.
[The Board directed that the Regional Director for the Thirteenth
Region shall open and count the ballots cast by Dosch, Hough, Sellers,
Sebring, Kreamelmeyer, Hughes, and Ramsey and thereafter pre-
pare and serve upon the parties to this proceeding a supplemental
tally of ballots, including therein the count of said ballots.]
PHILADELPHIA ELECTRIC COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD
OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL, PETITIONER . Case No. 4-RC-2309.
October 12,1954
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before William Naimark, hearing
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 :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims 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 :
The Petitioner requests, in effect, a systemwide unit of all physical
employees engaged in production and maintenance work at the Em-
ployer's electric generating stations and steam heating plants, includ-
ing small groups of fringe employees designated as substation opera-
tors,' and store employees and telephone operators working at the
I See footnote 5, infra
110 NLRB No 37.
PHILADELPHIA ELECTRIC COMPANY 321
generating stations or steam heating plants.2 The Petitioner does
not seek to represent gas production employees,3 gas and electric trans-
mission and distribution employees, nor, with they exception of the
above-mentioned store employees and telephone operators, any of the
Employer's service or administrative department employees.
The Employer at the hearing moved to dismiss the petition on the
ground that a systemwide unit of all gas, electric, and steam produc-
tion and distribution employees is the only appropriate unit, because
of the high degree of integration of its operations, and an alleged
history of collective bargaining on the more comprehensive basis.
The Employer is a public utility engaged in the production, distri-
bution, and sale of gas, steam heat, and electric energy. The two.
production departments of the Employer are its gas and electric oper-
ations departments' The employees of the production division of
electric operations, designated as the station operating department,
and herein called SOD, comprise substantially the unit sought by the
Petitioner. The SOD has control over all generating stations and
steam heating plants, and about 40 substations.'
The Employer operates 4 gas plants, 7 electric generating stations,
and 3 steam heating plants. The generating stations are integrated
into a single power grid through interconnecting cables, aerial lines,,
and substations . All major bulk power transmission facilities and
substations are linked with all of the generating stations into a single
pool for the common supply of electric energy to the consumers. The
electricity produced at the powerplants is relayed to substations
which in turn redistribute the electricity, or change its voltage either
for transmission to other locations or for ultimate distribution to
the consumer.
The three steam heating plants and the Schuylkill generating sta-
tion produce steam heat for sale to consumers; all generating stations,
including the one at Schuylkill, as well as all gas plants, also produce
the steam necessary to operate their own generating equipment.'
2 All proposed inclusions , with the exception of store and telephone employees , who re-
spectively come under the jurisdiction of the stores and telephone divisions of the service
operations department, are part of the station operating department of electric operations
"The gas department has no separate maintenance division , which means that some 20,
maintenance employees from the station operating department of electric operations have
been permanently assigned to the gas plants where they do the necessary maintenance
work while remaining under the technical supervision of the station operating depart-
ment The Petitioner does not seek any of these employees.
•In addition to these, the Employer has 3 service departments, a sales department, and
4 purely administrative departments
6 There are more than 400 substations throughout the system , only 31 of which are con-
tinuously attended Of the 40 substations under SOD control, about 25 are attended, only
9 of which are located within the confines of the generating station enclosures Employees
in these 9 substations are the only substation personnel which the Petitioner seeks to
represent
0 Although the boiler plant personnel at the gas stations may perform functions similar
to those of comparable personnel at the generating stations and steam heating plants, the
338207-55-vol 110-22
322 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Each electric production unit is separate and consists of a fenced-
in area which encloses the structures connected with the production
of electricity, as well as high-line substations attended by station
operating personnel. Admission into these enclosures is generally
restricted to regular generating station personnel, who all hold per-
manent passes; employees from other departments and visitors may
enter only by special permission, and must wear identification badges
while on the premises.
Each generating station has a detachment of 3 or 4 store employees
who supply materials and equipment as needed. Although technical-
ly under the supervision of the stores division of service operations,
they all work and expect to progress within the generating stations.
Each generating station also has assigned to it from the telephone
division of service operations telephone operators who are relieved
during their off-hours and days of rest by station operating personnel.
Promotions and transfers of employees are frequent within SOD,
and are handled at the department level. The comparatively insignifi-
cant number of transfers between the Employer's various depart-
ments' are controlled by the central personnel office and, in each case,
have resulted from specific employee requests rather than from the
operational requirements of the various departments.
Systemwide industrial units are generally considered as the opti-
mum units in public utilities.' Under proper circumstances, however,
units of a lesser scope have been held appropriate,' particularly where,
as here, no labor organization is seeking to represent the Employer's
employees on a more comprehensive basis.1°
In this case, the record indicates that gas production is carried
on as a distinct part of the Employer's operations; it shows further
that there is a higher degree of integration between the Employer's
electric and steam heating plants than between its gas production
plants and its other two types of installations. Thus, conditions of
work, wages, and promotion schedules are identical at all of the gener-
ating stations, and steam heating plant employees have job classifica-
tions and schedules comparable to those of boilerroom employees at
the generating stations, whereas classifications and rates of pay at
the gas plants differ from those at the generating stations and steam
latter are more highly paid because the electric and steam plant boilers are larger than
those in the gas plants and consequently call for higher classifications
7 During the past 10 years , there have been 52 transfers from generating stations to
other departments , and 10 transfers from steam heating plants to other departments. In
the same period, 28 transfers took place from other departments to generating stations, and
6 from other departments to steam heating plants. Almost all of these transfers were
made at the entrance level and few resulted in promotions or upgrading of the employee
involved.
8 Southern Colorado Power Company, 104 NLRB 926; Pacific Gas and Electric Company,
87 NLRB 257.
8 See , for example , West Texas Utilities Company, 97 NLRB 184. Southwestern Bell
Telephone Company, 108 NLRB 1041
10 Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company, 86 NLRB 437.
PHILADELPHIA ELECTRIC COMPANY 323
heating plants. Furthermore, the unit sought reflects both adminis-
trative and geographical lines of demarcation in that all proposed
inclusions either come under the jurisdiction of the station operating
department, or work within the confines of the power or steam heating
plants, or both.
The Employer, as has been indicated, asserts an alleged history of
bargaining on a broader basis as a ground for finding that the unit
sought here is not appropriate. Independent Group Association has,
since 1942, met regularly with management for the purpose of in-
formally discussing employees' grievances, and has been instrumental
in obtaining a number of benefits for the Employer's employees.
However, no formal contract has ever been negotiated or executed as
a result of this relationship. In fact, the only bargaining that has
resulted in a contractual relationship has been between the Petitioner
and the Employer for the Chester generating station alone.il We
note also that Independent Group Association has not intervened in
this proceeding. Therefore, we find, contrary to the Employer's con-
tention, that the informal representation of the type involved here
does not establish a pattern of collective bargaining sufficient to pre-
clude the appropriateness of a unit on some other basis.i2
On the basis of the facts set forth above, and upon the entire record,
we find that the employees in the requested unit constitute a homo-
geneous, identifiable, departmental group with a community of in-
terest separate and apart from that of other employees of the Em-
ployer, and that they constitute an appropriate bargaining unit.
Accordingly, we find that all production 13 and maintenance 14
employees at the Employer's generating stations and steam heating
plants, all SOD substation operators at each of the generating sta-
tions,,' and all employees permanently assigned to the generating sta-
11 See footnote 18, infra.
12 Aerovox Corporation , 93 NLRB 1101
"The 1'inployer at the hearing sought to exclude from any unit found appropriate the
following categories of employees employed at its generating stations on the ground of
their alleged supervisory status- Chief boiler operators , chief assistant running engineers,
chief electrical mechanics , and chief hoisting engineers . A similar contention was made
by the Employer in Philadelphia Electric Company, 95 NLRB 71, with respect to employees
in the same job classifications at its Chester generating station In view of the inconclu-
siveness of the record with respect to the exact nature of their duties , the Board in that case
made no determination as to the supervisory status of these employees and permitted them
to vote subject to challenge . The record in the instant proceeding again fails to supply the
information necessary to enable us to pass upon this question . We shall, therefore, per-
mit all employees in the above-listed categories to vote subject to challenge.
14 All maintenance personnel under the maintenance division of SOD are included in the
unit They consist of small groups of maintenance employees attached to each of the elec-
tric plants , and of a roving maintenance force headquartered at the Schuylkill generating
station which is sent out to the various powerplants to supplement the maintenance forces
already stationed there Also included are all steam line repairmen in the city of Phila-
delphia under the steam heating division of SOD Steam lines at the Employer 's two steam
heating plants outside of Philadelphia are serviced by T&D employees from the gas depart-
ment , these employees are accordingly excluded.
15 The record, it is true , plainly indicates that the function of substations is essentially
one of transmission and distribution , and that if, for organizational purposes , some of the
324 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
tions and steam heating plants from the stores and telephone divi-
sions, but excluding all gas production employees,", electric and gas:
transmission and distribution employees, service employees,14 profes-
sional employees, employees covered by existing collective-bargain-
ing agreements,", clerks, guards, and supervisors as defined in the-
Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purpose of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBER MURDOCK took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
Employer ' s substations have been placed under SOD rather than under T&D, this has been
the result of a historical accident which has little to do with functional aspects of the
Employer's operations . Nevertheless, we find that employees employed in the 9 substa-
tions adjacent to the generating stations properly belong in the unit because , unlike T&D
or other SOD substation employees, they are part of the physically identifiable group work-
ing within the generating station enclosures and remain in constant touch with generat-
ing station personnel with whom they have a stronger community of interest than with
any other groups of employees.
19 Maintenance personnel from the maintenance division of SOD who are attached to-
the gas plants are likewise excluded from the unit because their interests are more closely
allied to those of gas department employees than to those of electric department employees.
17 This exclusion refers to service employees other than stores and telephone divisions
employees stationed within the electric and steam heating plants.
18 As a result of a 1901 Board-directed election, the Petitioner herein was certified as
the bargaining representative of all production and maintenance employees at the Em-
ployer's Chester generating station . See Philadelphia Electric Company, supra.
SNOWFLAKE BAKERY CORPORATION OF HAWAII, LIMITED and INTERNA-
TIONAL LONGSHOREMEN AND WAREHOUSEMEN UNION, LOCAL 142,
PETITIONER'
SNOWFLAKE BAKERY CORPORATION OF HAWAII, LIMITED and HAWAII
TEAMSTERS AND ALLIED WORKERS, LOCAL 996, AFL, PETITIONER.2
Cases Nos. 37-RC-247 and 37-RC-248. October 12, 1954
Decision and Direction of Elections
Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act, a consolidated hearing was held before
David Karasick, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
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
employees of the Employer.
1 Herein called ILWU.
2 Herein called Teamsters.
110 NLRB No. 42.