Sonic-Buena Park H, Inc. d/b/a Buena Park Honda

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 18, 2016

21-RC-178527 (N.L.R.B. Oct. 18, 2016)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
SONIC-BUENA PARK H, INC. D/B/A BUENA
PARK HONDA
Employer
and Case 21-RC-178527
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS,
DISTRICT LODGE 190, LOCAL LODGE 1484,
AFL-CIO
Petitioner
ORDER
The Employer’s Request for Review of the Regional Director’s Decision and Direction of
Election is denied as it raises no substantial issues warranting review.1

1 In denying review, we find that petitioned-for employees are an appropriate unit and the
Employer has not sustained its burden of establishing that any of the disputed classifications,
either individually or collectively, share an overwhelming community of interest with the
petitioned-for employees such that their inclusion in the unit is required. Specialty Healthcare &
Rehab. Center of Mobile, 357 NLRB 934, 938 (2011), enfd. 727 F.3d 552 (6th Cir. 2013).
Having so found, we find it unnecessary to rely on the Regional Director’s finding that
the petitioned-for unit constitutes a craft unit from which other Service Department and Parts
Department employees must be excluded.
We reject the Employer’s argument that lube technicians must be included in the unit
with service technicians because lube technicians are dual-function employees. Lube technicians
are not dual-function employees; they spend all of their time performing the duties of a lube
technician. They are not qualified to perform, and do not perform, the more complex diagnostic
and repair work performed by service technicians. Although service technicians do perform
some work performed by lube technicians, it is incidental to their primary service technician
functions. Service technicians are highly skilled, are required to continually maintain and update
their training and skills, and are paid substantially higher wages than lube technicians. Service
technicians constitute a clearly identifiable and functionally distinct group with common
interests distinguishable from employees in the lube technician classification. See Dick Kelchner
Excavating Co., 236 NLRB 1414 (1978).
Member Miscimarra would not apply Specialty Healthcare or the “overwhelming
community of interest” standard to determine whether the petitioned-for unit must include
additional employees. See generally Macy's, Inc., 361 NLRB No. 4, slip op. at 22-33 (2014)
(Member Miscimarra, dissenting). Rather, he would apply the Board’s traditional principles,
including an assessment of “whether the interests of the group sought are sufficiently distinct
from those of other [excluded] employees to warrant establishment of a separate unit.” Wheeling
Island Gaming, 355 NLRB 637, 637 fn. 2 (2010) (quoting Newton-Wellesley Hospital, 250
2
MARK GASTON PEARCE, CHAIRMAN
PHILIP A. MISCIMARRA, MEMBER
LAUREN McFERRAN, MEMBER
Dated, Washington, D.C., October 18, 2016.

NLRB 409, 411-412 (1980)). In addition, consistent with the Board’s traditional principles,
Member Miscimarra believes bargaining unit determinations should be circumscribed and guided
by industry-specific standards where applicable. In this case, however, he agrees that the
interests of the service technicians are sufficiently distinct from the excluded employees and
otherwise appropriate for inclusion in a separate unit.