Red Car, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 21, 1950

92 N.L.R.B. 175 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of RED CAB, INC., EMPLOYER and CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL
ORGANIZATIONS, PETITIONER
Case No. 35-RC-391.-Decided November 21, 1950
DECISION AND ORDER
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Harold V..
Carey, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is an Indiana corporation engaged in furnishing
taxicab and transportation service in and about Indianapolis, Indiana,
under the authority of a municipal ordinance. The Employer directly
operates the following 3 departments : (1) Red Cab, with 600 to 800
workers,' including 500 to 700 drivers, and 231 taxicabs; (2) U-Drive-
It, with 30 cars for rent; and (3) Frank Bird Baggage Service, with 5
employees, and 2 trucks carrying baggage to and from the Union
Station in Indianapolis. The Employer also owns all the capital
stock and the controlling interest in the capital stock, respectively,
of the following 2 subsidiary corporations : (1) Associated Automo-
bile and Truck Rental Company with 2 employees, and 28 trucks for
rent, and (2) Safety Cab, Inc., with an -undisclosed number of em-
ployees and 19 taxicabs. The Employer's president, a substantial
stockholder in the Employer, is also the vice president and treasurer
of, and the controlling stockholder in, Horace F. Wood Auto Livery,
Inc., with 20 employees and 6 limousines and 6 busses for rent with
drivers. U-Drive-It stores its cars, repaired and serviced by Red Cab,
in the garage of Horace F. Wood Auto Livery, Inc., 3 employees
of which rent out cars for U-Drive-It and are paid for their services
,by the Employer.
During a representative - month of 1950, the Employer bought
$43,889.28 worth of parts and supplies for its Red Cab department,
of which $2,465.13, or 5.57 percent, represents purchases made outside
Indian a-.2 During'the last year, the Employer and-the subsidiary cor-
The figures given herein are approximate.
2 Thus, the Employer' s direct out-of-State purchases for this department would amount
to $29,580 per year.
92 NLRB No. 18.
175.
176 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
porations bought from Indiana dealers $289,500 worth of automobiles
manufactured in other States 3 The, Employer pays tire and tube
rental of $40,000 per year for its Red Cab department to a local dealer
for tires manufactured by General Tire Company of Akron, Ohio.
The Employer has contracts with (1) Indianapolis Union Railroad
and (2) the Street Railroad Company, owners, respectively, of Union
Station and of a bus station in Indianapolis, and with (3)• Monan
Railroad and (4) the Municipal Board of Air Commissioners of the
city of Indianapolis, owner and operator, respectively, of Monan Sta-
tion and the Municipal Airport in suburban Indianapolis, terminals
which handle interstate traffic. Under these contracts, the Employer
has the following exclusive rights : (1) To use a covered driveway
,on Union Station premises large enough for the parking of four taxi-
cabs awaiting passengers,4 to have taxicab dispatchers, a manager
of its Frank Bird Baggage Service department, and a telephone within
the station itself, and to park its baggage trucks at a station loading
platform; (2) to have a telephone and a taxicab dispatcher at the
bus station; (3) to park on the grounds of the Monan Station; and
(4) upon requests for taxicabs by airline passengers, to have em-
ployees of the Municipal Airport telephone the Employer.
During the first 6 months of 1950, 'the Employer's Red Cab depart-
ment made 1,598,807 trips. Of these trips, 6 to 12 were made to points
outside Indiana.5 Sixty-one thousand and eighty, or 3.86 percent,
were trips from the Union Stations carrying persons who had -been
railroad passengers. Seventeen thousand seven hundred and ninety-
five, or 1.1 percent, were trips from the bus station, carrying persons
who had been interstate bus passengers; 1,800, or .11 percent, were
trips carrying passengers from the Monan Station ; and 660, or .03
percent, were trips carrying passengers from the Municipal Airport.
Of the 1,598,807 trips made by the Employer's Red Cab department,
3 For these automobiles , the Employer spent $200 , 000 for its Red Cab Department and
$45,000 for its U-Drive-It department ; and Associated Automobile and Truck Company,
Safety Cab Inc., and Horace F. Wood Auto Livery,' Inc., spent $20,000, $15,000, and
$9,500, respectively . The record does not show whether the automobiles were delivered
directly to the Employer and the subsidiary corporations named above.
4 All taxicab firms, including the Employer , use an "open " or public stand near the
station.
5 The Employer 's U-Drive -It department rarely, and its Frank Bird Baggage department
virtually never , make out-of-State trips.
Associated Automobile and Truck Rental Company, the trucks of which do not have
Interstate Commerce Commission permits , and Horace F. Wood Auto Livery, Inc ., rarely
make out-of-State trips. Safety Cab , Inc., makes less than 12 trips per year outside
Indiana.
The Employer does not keep a record of the number of trips its taxicabs make to the
Union Station. At the hearing, the Employer 's president estimated that the trips to the
station would .total 50 percent of those from the'station.
RED CAB,' INC. 177
during the first 6 months of 1950, 81,'335,-or 5.1 percent, were therefore
made from the above terminals.'
We find that the Employer is engaged in commerce within the
meaning of the Act. The interstate purchases of the Employer and the
subsidiary corporations involved herein do not equal, either in direct
or indirect inflow or in both combined, any of the quantities that the
Board has recently announced to be the minima required for-its asser-
tion of jurisdiction on the basis of inflow alone." However, as noted
above, a portion of the Employer's business involves providing trans-
portation services from four established terminals, concededly han-
dling interstate traffic, under arrangements which give the Employer
certain special and exclusive privileges regarding such services. In
these circumstances, we are persuaded that the Employer's operations
may properly be regarded as an essential link in the services per-
formed by these instrumentalities of commerce, and believe that the
reasons which motivated our decision to assert jurisdiction over such
instrumentalities ° are equally applicable here. We therefore find
that it will effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction in
this case.10
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 8
.(c) (1) and Section 2 (6). and (7) of the Act for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner-'seeks a. unit of radio and telephone dispatchers and
telephone switchboard operators at the Employer's garage and office
at Indianapolis, Indiana. The Employer contends that the workers
sought by the Petitioner do not constitute an appropriate unit.
The Employer divides its operations into various administrative
sectors concentrated in three departments : maintenance, traffic, 'and
general office. The traffic department, under the over-all supervision
IIf the trips of Safety Cab, Inc., and Horace F. Wood Auto Livery, Inc., are added
to those of the Employer's Red Cab department, the percentages of trips from the terminals
listed below to the total trips is as follows :
Union Station------------------------------------ 3.56
Bus Station-------------------------------------- 1.03
Monan Station------------------------------------ .10
The percentage of trips made by Horace F. Wood Auto Livery, Inc. to the total trips
as thus combined is .437.
8 The Rutledge Paper Products, Inc., 91 NLRB 625 Federal Dairy Co., Inc., 91 NLRB
638; Dorn'8 House of Miracles, Inc., 91 NLRB 632.
WBSR, Inc., 91 NLRB 630.
10 The decision in Yellow Cab-Comp,Iy-of-California,- 90. NLRB 1884. is.herehy overruled
insofar as it conflicts with the instant decision.
178 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
of the superintendent of traffic, includes safety, personnel, and com
munications. The radio and telephone dispatchers, the telephone
switchboard operators, and the radio maintenance man work in the
communications sector of the traffic department tinder the direct sup-
ervision of the head of the communications or switchboard room.
Other workers in the traffic department include taxicab drivers, card-
room men, and a safety and personnel employee.
Radio and telephone dispatchers, by means of the Employer's com-
munications equipment," receive incoming calls from taxicab drivers
and cruising traffic supervisors, are informed by telephone switch-
board operators of requests by customers for taxicabs, and inform
drivers where business may be expected or where prospective pas-
sengers are waiting.
The Employer, so far as the record discloses, has not bargained with
any labor organization for employees in the communications or
switchboard room. They do not alone constitute a separate major
department of the Employer's operations, nor is there any evidence
that they are craftsmen. Under these circumstances, we find that
they may not constitute a separate unit apart from other employees in
the traffic department, and we shall therefore dismiss the petition 12
ORDER
Upon the entire record in this case, the National Labor Relations
Board hereby orders that the petition herein be, and it hereby is, dis-
missed.
We find it unnecessary to make any finding with respect to the Em-
ployer's contention that radio and telephone dispatchers are super-
visors within the meaning of the Act.
"Radio dispatchers take examinations and are licensed by the Federal Communications
Commissiob.
12 Appalachian Electrio Power Company, 91 NLRB 1376. Cf. New England Tcleponne
and Telegraph Company, 90 NLRB 639, and Field Enterprif6s, Inc ., 73 NLRB 141.