Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 23, 1954

110 N.L.R.B. 989 (N.L.R.B. 1954)

SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY 989
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact , and upon the entire record in
the case, I make the following:
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
1. Local 1035 , International Union of Electrical , Radio & Machine Workers, CIO,
is a labor organization within the meaning of Section 2 (5) of the Act.
2. All production and maintenance employees of Respondent , excluding office
employees , guards, professional employees , and supervisors as defined in the Act,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
3. At all times on and after February 12, 1953, the Union has been the exclusive
bargaining representative of Respondent 's employees in said unit.
4. Respondent has violated Section 8 (a) (5) and ( 1) of the Act by failing and
refusing to bargain with the Union since on or about March 5, 1953.
5. By interfering with, restraining , and coercing his employees in the exercise of
rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act, Respondent has engaged in and is engaging
in unfair labor practices within the meaning of Section 8 ( a) (1) of the Act.
6. The aforesaid unfair labor practices are unfair labor practices affecting com-
merce within the meaning of Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
[Recommendations omitted from publication.]
HWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY and RALPH OLIAN, PETI-SO-UT
TIONER, and COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO. Case
No. 14-RD-75. November,03,1954
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before William F. Trent, 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 Petitioner, an employee of the Employer, asserts that the
Union is no longer the representative, as defined in Section 9 (a) of
the Act, of the employees designated in the petition.
The Union, a labor organization, was certified in 1948 and is cur-
rently recognized by the Employer as the exclusive bargaining rep-
resentative of employees designated in the petition.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the represen-
tation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks decertification of the Union as representative
of the Employer's directory artists. These employees have been bar-
gained for by the Union and its predecessor unions as part of a broader
unit coextensive with the Employer's commercial department since
sometime before 1942. The Petitioner asserts that the directory
110 NLRB No. 164.
990 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
artists are professional employees or, in any event, are a homogeneous
departmental group that may be severed from the existing unit.
The Employer operates a telephone system extending over several
southwestern States. It employs 20 individuals classified as directory
artists, 8 of whom work in the• Employer's St. Louis, Missouri, office,
8 in Dallas, Texas, 1 each in Kansas City, Topeka, and Wichita,
Kansas, and 1 in Little Rock, Arkansas.' These employees prepare
the drawings and layouts of the advertisements inserted on the pages
of the classified telephone directories in St. Louis and other cities
served by the Employer's system.
The preparation of such an advertisement is usually initiated by
an "art request," prepared on a standard form, indicating the ma-
terial desired to be incorporated in the advertisement, and issued by
a directory salesman who has solicited the customer for the advertise-
ment. In accord with the art request, the directory artist prepares
a preliminary or "speculative" sketch and layout of the ad, which
the salesman presents to the customer for approval, after which it is
returned to the artist for preparation of the finished drawing, letter-
ing, and other material requisite to reproduction for insertion in the
classified directory.
A considerable degree of skill in the use of appropriate techniques,
knowledge of the fundamentals of artistic presentation, and an
imaginative approach are valuable qualifications for this work, as is
generally true of commercial art. The Employer's directory artists
are required to have had some experience in the field of commercial
art before being employed. Although the types of experience pos-
sessed by the individual artists are varied, the record indicates that
such experience is frequently obtained through newspaper and free
lance work and association with established artists in commercial art
studios. The testimony of several of the directory artists shows also
that they have received instruction in such varied ways as through
courses in technical high schools, private instruction, classes in adult
education, and on-the-job training in large industrial concerns.
These artists all had attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, a
division of Washington University, for periods ranging from 11/_9 to
3 years 2 The record is clear, however, that possession of any specific
i There are also three employees in the classification of directory layout artist, located
in Wichita, Kansas, and Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma. These employees prepare
speculative or suggested layouts, but do not make as many finished drawings as do the
,directory artists. The Petitioner does not seek to include them in the unit for decertifi-
cation.
2 Testimony of the dean of the School of Fine Arts discloses that it offers 2 alternative
courses, each of 4 years' duration, one limited to art studies and leading only to a certifi-
SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY 991
educational qualification is not a prerequisite for employment as a
directory artist. Rather the criterion is the artist's experience and
his demonstrated ability to perform the type of work required by
the Employer.
The Petitioner asserts that the work of the directory artists meets
each of the several aspects of the statutory professional definition.
Thus, he contends, inter alia, that the work is predominantly intellec-
tual and varied in character, involves the exercise of judgment and
discretion in its performance, and that the output or result cannot
be standardized in relation to time.3 Although the record indicates
that these aspects of the statutory qualifications are present at least
in some degree in the directory artist's work, it also- appears that such
characteristics may be circumscribed to some extent by the limitations
of space, permissible techniques, the requirements of literal as dis-
tinguished from freely artistic portrayal, and the need to meet pro-
duction deadlines. However, we need not here determine whether
these standards of the professional definition are fully met, for it is
clear that the directory artists do not meet the statutory educational
qualification.4 Despite the fact that some substantial number of the
Employer's directory artists have received instruction in a school of
fine arts, the record fails to show that any of them has completed the
full course of such instruction. And it is clear that such a course,
though of value, is nevertheless not a customary requisite to perform-
ance of the work of employees in the directory artist classification.
Upon the entire record, we find that the Employer's directory artists
are not professional employees within the meaning of the statutory
definition.5 Nor does it appear that they constitute a group that has
been traditionally recognized as entitled to separate representation.°
We shall therefore dismiss the petition.
[The Board dismissed the petition.]
cate, and the other including some general academic instruction and leading to a fine
arts degree . There is now a national organization comprising 32 such art schools, almost
all of them offering comparable alternate programs . Within each program, the first year
is confined to fundamentals, the second year progresses toward a general specialization
in fine arts or in commercial art, and the third and fourth years are devoted to the more
highly specialized types of art work.
3 See Section 2 (12) of the National Labor Relations Act.
4 Section 2 (12) of the Act reads in part: "The term `professional employee ' means-
(a) any employee engaged in work . . . ( iv) requiring knowledge of an advanced type
in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized
intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher learning or a hospital, as
distinguished from a general academic education or from an apprenticeship or from train-
ing in the performance of routine mental, manual , or physical processes ; . . .
6 Cf. Koopman-Neumer, 88 NLRB 612
6 Cf. American Potash and Cheonacal Corporation, 107 NLRB 1418.