Tennessee Gas Transmission Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 9, 1951

96 N.L.R.B. 1385 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

TENNESSEE GAS TRANSMISSION COMPANY 1385
TENNESSEE GAS TRANSMISSION COMPANY and INTERNATIONAL CHEM-
ICAL WORKERS UNION, A. F. L., PETITIONER. Case No. 9-RC-1284.
November 9,1951
Decision and Order
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Leonard S. Kimmel,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-
member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Mur-
dock].
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 labor organization involved claims to represent employees
of the Employer.
3. No question affecting commerce exists concerning the repre-
sentation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act, for the follow-
ing reasons :
The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of compressor and pipeline
employees at one of the Employer's compressor stations and its con-
tiguous pipeline district. The Employer contends that only a system-
wide unit is appropriate.
The Employer operates a natural gas pipeline system which extends
from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to the New York-Massachu-
setts State line. It purchases the gas in the Gulf Coast area, for trans-
portation and sale to customers in the Appalachian area and in the
New England States. At various points along the pipeline, there are
compressor stations to compress. the gas and move it along. At each
compressor station, there is a pipeline headquarters from which the
employees who maintain the pipeline operate.
For administrative purposes the pipeline is divided into 5 divi-
sions. Each division contains a number of compressor stations and
pipeline districts. There are 21 compressor stations' and 30 pipeline
districts in the entire system. The Petitioner seeks to represent em-
ployees at compressor station 200 located at Load, Kentucky, and
1 Three of these were being built at the time of the hearing. They were expected to
be in operation before the end of the 1951 calendar year.
96 NLRB No. 213.
1386 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
pipeline district 200, which also has its headquarters at Load. This
compressor station and pipeline district are part of Division D, which
extends through most of Kentucky and Ohio and includes 5 other
compressor stations and pipeline districts.
Throughout its entire system, the Employer has 1,410 employees
in compressor and pipeline classifications. Twenty-one of these work
in compressor station 200 and 14 in pipeline district 200.
General supervision over the entire system extends through the
president, a vice president, and the general superintendent. Under
the latter is a pipeline superintendent in charge of the entire pipeline
and a general compressor superintendent with jurisdiction of all
compressor stations. Immediately under these two superintendents
are the five division superintendents each of whom supervises both
compressor and pipeline operations within his division. Reporting
to the division superintendent are the superintendent of each pipeline
district and the superintendent of each compressor station.
Operations of the entire pipeline are completely integrated and
controlled from the headquarters in Houston, Texas. A stoppage or
breakdown in any location would affect the operation of the entire
pipeline system. Personnel policies, including job duties, classifica-
tions, rates of pay, employee benefits, working hours, and conditions
of employment, are uniform throughout the system. Transfers of
employees from one site to another are frequent. There is no history
of collective bargaining.
We can perceive no basis for finding the Petitioner's proposed unit
appropriate except extent of organization. However, Section 9 (c) (5)
of the amended Act specifically bars the Board from giving con-
trolling effect to this factor.2 Without deciding at this time whether
only a system-wide unit is appropriate, we find that a unit limited
to one compressor station and one pipeline district is inappropriate.3
We shall therefore dismiss the petition.
Order
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby
is, dismissed.
2 Section 9 (c) (6) provides:
In determining whether a unit is appropriate ... the extent to which the em-
ployees have organized shall not be controlling.
8 In 1946 , before the passage of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 , the Board
did find appropriate a unit of employees at one of the Employer 's compressor stations
and pipeline districts . Tennessee Gas & Transmission Company, 67.NLRB 1375. That
decision was based , however , to a large extent on the petitioning union's extent of organs'
zation . As set forth above , that factor can no longer be given controlling effect,,