Southern California Gas Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 21, 1942

44 N.L.R.B. 1395 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter' of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS COMPANY and UTILITY
WORKERS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, LOCAL 151, AFFILIATED WITH THE
C. I. O.
Case No. R-066.-Decided October U, 1942
Jurisdiction : gas utility industry.
Investigation and Certification of Representatives : existence of question: re-
fusal to accord petitioner recognition until certified, by the Board; election
necessary.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : maintenance employees, janitors,
janitresses, elevator operators, elevator starters, and watchmen, in one geo-
graphical division of Company, excluding temporary and supervisory employees
and armed guards.
Mr. LeRoy M. Edwards, Mr. R. R. Blackburn and Mr. Guy W. Wads-
worth, Jr., of Los Angeles, Calif., for the Company.
Mr. 'Milton Tyre, of Los Angeles, Calif., for, the Union.
Mr. Louis Cokin, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition and amended petition duly filed by Utility Workers
Organizing Committee, Local 151, herein called the Union, alleging
that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning the represen-
tation of employees of Southern California Gas Company, Los Angeles,
California, herein called the Company, the National- Labor Relations
Board provided for an appropriate hearing upon- due notice.before
Guy Farmer, Trial Examiner. Said hearing was held at Los Angeles,
California, on September 8, 9, and_ 10, 1942. The Company and the
Union appeared and participated in the hearing.' All parties were
afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and cross-examine
witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing on the issues. At the
beginning of the hearing, the Company moved to dismiss the pro-
ceeding claiming, in substance, that, the Board is without jurisdiction.
The Trial Examiner reserved his ruling. For reasons, hereinafter
'Pacific Gas Workers Union Inc. was served with notice but did not appear-at the
hearing.
44 N. L. R. B., No. 264. - . .
1395
1396 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
appearing, the motion-is denied. - The Trial Examiner's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
On September 30 and October, 5, 1942, respectively, the Company and
the Union filed briefs which the Board has considered.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board make the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT'
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
0
At the hearing in the instant proceeding, the record in an earlier
case involving the Compa,,ny 2 was by agreement introduced in evi-
dence. No other evidence concerning the operations of the Company
insofar as they bear on the Board's jurisdiction was introduced. In
the earlier case the Board found and it here finds :
The Company is engaged principally in the business of purchasing,
transporting, selling, and distributing natural gas for light, heat, and
power purposes in the,central and southern areas of California., It is
also engaged to a minor extent in manufacturing, transporting, selling,
and distributing manufactured gas. It purchases and sells butane for
the purposes of light, heat and power. As an incident to its principal
business, the Company sells gas appliances at retail.
The chief raw material purchased by the Company is natural gas,
all of which is purchased within California., In addition, it purchases
pipes, meters, regulators, pumps and similar materials. All of these
materials purchased during 1937, amounting in value to $1,214,823,
were purchased outside California, This was somewhat less than 10
,percent of the total purchases of raw materials, including natural gas
and, omitting the value of the natural gas products during that year,
constitutes approximately one-third of the total of all other raw mate-
rials purchased by the Company.
The Board found in substance in the earlier proceeding, and it here
finds, that the Company, supplies gas to major industrial firms in
Southern California and to a number of instrumentalities of interstate'
commerce, and that a stoppage of the operations of the Company would
have aclose, intimate, and substantial effect on interstate commerce.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Utility Workers, Organizing Committee, Local 151, is a labor organ-
ization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, admit-
ting to membership employees of the Company.
2 Matter of Southern California Gas Company and Utility Workers Organizing Com-
mittee, Local 132, 10 N. L. R. B. 1123. 1
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS COMPANY
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION ,
1397
The Union has been bargaining with the Company on •a members-
,only basis since 1939. In September 1941 the Company notified the
Union that it would not recognize the Union as the representative of
any of its employees until such time as the Board determined the
appropriate bargaining agent.
A statement of the Regional Director, introduced into evidence
during the hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial
number of the employees in the unit alleged by it to be appropriate.'
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 National Labor Relations
Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Union contends that all bill collectors, meter readers, bill de-
liverers, maintenance employees, janitors; janitresses, elevator opera-
tors, elevator starters, and watchmen employed in the Central Division
of the Company, excluding temporary employees, supervisory em-
ployees, and armed uniformed guards, constitute an appropriate unit
,or that such employees should be grouped with the production em-
ployees in the Central Division of the Company. The Company con-
tends that its entire operations, consisting of eight divisions through-
out the State of California, constitute' a single appropriate bargain-
ing unit but that if the Board finds that the system-wide unit is not ap-
propriate at, this time, no unit comprising less than an entire division
should be set, up. ,
In 1939 the Board found that all production employees in the Cen-
tral Division of the Company, excluding the classifications here sought,
constituted a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing 4 and such employees are presently covered by an exclusive con-
tract between another local of the Union and the Company. The Com-
pany contends that the meter readers, bill deliverers, and bill collectors
are clerical employees and thus should not be separated from the re-
maining clerical employees in the Central Division. There are a total
of 1,147 clerical employees in the Central Division, 114 of whom are
meter readers, bill collectors or bill deliverers. The record indicates
that many of the clerical employees not claimed by the Union work
The Regional Director reported that the membership roster and dues records of the
Union for the month of May 1942 contained the names of 104 persons who were employees
of the Company at that time. There are 183 employees in the unit alleged to be appro-
priate by the Union.
4 Matter of Southern California Gas Company and Utility Workers Organizing Com-
mittee, Local No. 132, 10 N. L. R. B 1123.
1398 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS, BOARD
in the same departments, under'the same supervision, and in the same
locations with the employees, in dispute. The Union has attempted to
and is at present attempting to organize all clerical employees in the
Central Division but has been successful in only organizing those
claimed by it in the instant proceeding. In the previous proceeding
we found that the work performed by bill deliverers, bill collectors,
and meter readers is closely, allied with that of* the clerical workers.
Therefore these employees alone would not constitute a homogenous
'group for collective bargaining purposes nor a logical part of the pro-
duction workers unit. However, the maintenance employees, janitors,
'janitresses, elevator operators, elevators starters, and watchmen may
properly constitute an appropriate bargaining unit at this time inas-
much as their work is not closely allied with that of the clerical work-
ers and they comprise a well defined and distinct group for collective
bargaining purposes. .
We find that all maintenance employees, janitors, janitresses, ele-
vator operators, elevator starters, and watchmen in the Central Divi-
sion of the Company, excluding temporary and supervisory employees
and armed guards constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of
collective bagaining, 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. In accordance, '
with a stipulation 'of the parties, we find that those eligible to vote
in the election shall be the employees in the appropriate unit who were
employed during the pay-roll period for the end of the month pre=
ceding the date of the Direction of Election herein, subject to the
limitations and additions set forth in the Direction.
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 Rela-
tions Act, and pursuant to Article III, Section 8, of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended,
it'is hereby
DIRECTED that,' as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Southern Cali-
fornia Gas Company, Los Angeles, 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 Twenty-first Region, act-
ing in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations Board,
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS COMPANY 1399
and subject to Article III, Section 9, of said Rules and Regulations,
among the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV,
above, who were employed during the pay-roll period for the end- of
the month preceding the date of this Direction, including employees
who did not work during such pay-roll period because they were ill or
on vacation or in the, active military service or training of the United
States, or temporarily laid off, but excluding employees who have since
quit or have been discharged for cause, to determine whether or not
they desire to be represented by Utility Workers Organizing Commit-'
tee, Local 151, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial' Organiza-
tions, for the purposes of collective bargaining.