Roanoke Railway and Electric Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

May 27, 1957

117 N.L.R.B. 1775 (N.L.R.B. 1957)

ROANOKE RAILWAY AND ELECTRIC COMPANY 1775
Roanoke Railway and Electric Company & Safety Motor Transit
Corporation 1 and Amalgamated Association of Street , Electric
Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America , Local Divi-
sion 1493, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case No. 5-RC-1994. May 27,
1957
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 David C. Sachs, 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 2 is a local transit company engaged in transport-
ing passengers entirely within the State of Virginia in and around
the city of Roanoke. The Employer contends that it is an independ-
ently operated local transit line which does not meet the $3,000,000
gross revenue test for intrastate transit systems laid down in The
Greenwich Gas Company and Fuels, Incorporated 3 The Petitioner
contends'that the Employer, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Virginia
Stage Lines, Incorporated, is but one segment of a closely knit group
of intrastate and interstate transit companies which meets the Board's
jurisdictional requirements 4
The Employer herein is one of the affiliated public transit lines
owned by S. A. Jessup and members of his family through corporate
structures discussed infra. S. A. Jessup is the president of the Vir-
ginia Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company, a majority of the stock of which
is held by members of the Jessup family. Virginia Stage Lines, In-
corporated, an interstate transit system, is also controlled by the
Jessups. Of the 74220/500 shares of stock issued and outstanding,
36020/500 shares are owned by Virginia Pepsi-Cola and 261 shares are
owned by members of the Jessup family individually. Safety Motor
is a wholly owned subsidiary of Virginia Stage Lines which also holds :
(1) 100 percent of the stock of Safeway Transit Company and Lynch-
burg Transit Company, both of which are intrastate buslines; (2) 100
percent of the stock of Consolidated Bus Lines and its wholly owned
subsidiary, Blue Ribbon Lines, both of which are interstate transit
systems; (3) 100 percent of the stock of the Allentown and Reading
Transit Company, an intercity bus system operating in Pennsylvania;
(4) 20 percent of the stock of Safeway Trails, Inc., an interstate bus
1 The name of the Employer appears as corrected at the hearing.
a It was stipulated that Roanoke Railway and Electric Company & Safety Motor Transit
Corporation constitute a single employer and that Roanoke Railway is a nonoperating
company. Hereinafter, the Employer will be referred to as Safety Motor.
5110 NLRB 564.
4 Safety Motor's gross revenue for 1955 was $1 , 400,000. Virginia Stage Lines' revenue
for the same year was $ 2,766,405.
117 NLRB No. 237.
1776 DECISIONS- OF' NATIONAL -LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
system;'and. (5) 50 percent of the stock of bus terminals' serving Wash-
ington, D. C., to Richmond and Roanoke, Virginia, and Trailways
Service, Inc., -a bus service facility in Washington, D. C.
The record reveals a,close integration of Safety Motor and Virginia
Stage Lines management and management functions. The directors
of the 2 companies are the same with 1 exception and there is also a
considerable degree of common identity of top management personnel.
The president of Virginia Stage Lines is C. A. Jessup, who also serves
as vice president of Safety Motor. S. A. Jessup is the president of
Safety Motor and W. G. Muncy is the secretary of Virginia Stage
Lines and the secretary and treasurer of Safety Motor. It is C. A.
Jessup to whom Safety Motor's general manager regularly reports and
from whom he receives instructions. Management functions are
closely integrated. Safety Motor's accounts are audited and its in-
come tax is prepared in Charlottesville, the main office of Virginia
Stage Lines, by D. S. Marshall, who performs the same work for other
companies affiliated with Virginia Stage Lines. The companies so
serviced contribute to his salary. Accident reports are sent to the
Charlottesville office and that office is consulted with regard to any
large or unusual settlements. The central office also counsels the local
companies on preventive maintenance, and final decisions on the pur-
chase of new buses for Safety Motor are made by C. A. Jessup.
The operations of Safety Motor and Virginia Stage Lines are also
closely interrelated. All parts necessary for maintaining Safety
Motor's buses are obtained from the Virginia Stage Lines purchasing
department in Lynchburg, Virginia, which is the central purchasing
agency operated by Virginia Stage Lines for itself and the city transit
lines which are its subsidiaries. In addition, Safety Motor often pro-
vides drivers, upon request, to operate Virginia Stage Lines and Con-
solidated buses. Safety Motor also loans buses to these companies
and regularly provides road service for Virginia Stage Lines. It is
reimbursed for such services and for the repair work it does on Vir-
ginia Stage Lines buses. Virginia Stage Lines' employees are given
free transit on Safety Motor buses and Safety Motor's employees
are issued passes for Virginia Stage Lines transportation where
necessary.
With regard to labor relations, the Jessups retain much control.
Testimony reveals that Safety Motor's general manager would "in-
form" C. A. Jessup of any demand for recognition and would refuse
to grant it if C. A. Jessup so instructed him. Safety Motor's em-
ployees' insurance plan was approved by C. A. Jessup and it would
appear that the other subsidiary companies have the same or similar
plans. A man from Lynchburg Transit assisted Safety Motor in set-
ting up a training program. In addition, Virginia Stage Lines em-
ployees frequently attend the safety meetings conducted by Safety
Motor and there is an intercompany safety contest.
ROANOKE RAILWAY AND ELECTRIC COMPANY 1777
The Employer in support of its position that it is an independently
operated local bus line cites Safeway Transit Company 5 in which the
Board ( Member Murdock dissenting ) so found with regard to Safe-
way Transit . However , when that case was issued , the only corporate
connection between Virginia Stage Lines and the local companies lay
in the fact that the stock of these companies was held by Virginia
Pepsi-Cola and the Jessups controlled both Virginia Stage Lines and
Virginia Pepsi-Cola . When, in 1955, Virginia Stage Lines purchased
all the stock of the local transit lines from Virginia Pepsi-Cola, the
purpose motivating the reorganization , as stated under oath to the
Interstate Commerce Commission, was :
to make better utilization of the terminal and garage facilities of
the transit corporations . . . and to make more efficient use of
equipment , as well as the clerical and operating forces of the
transit corporations.
We find that the reasons furnished the Interstate Commerce Com-
mission for the reorganization have been largely accomplished and
that the change in ownership has achieved a close integration of the
operation , supervision , and control of the Employer with Virginia
Stage Lines.
In view of the substantial integration of Virginia Stage Lines and
Safety Motor , we find that for jurisdictional purposes these companies
constitute a single employer . 6 Accordingly , we find that the Employer
is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act and that it will
effectuate the purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction.7
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 following employees of the Employer constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean-
ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act : 8
All motor coach operators at the Employer's Roanoke , Virginia,
operation , excluding all other employees , guards, and supervisors as
defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
MEMBER RoDGERS took no part in the consideration of the above De-
cision and Direction of Election.
111 NLRB 1359.
Kleber Glass & Mirror Company, 111 NLRB 180.
Rollo Transit Corporation, 110 NLRB 1623.
The parties stipulated to the appropriateness of the unit.
423784-57--vol. 117-113