Texas-Empire Pipe Line Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 10, 1950

88 N.L.R.B. 631 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of TEXAS-EMPIRE PIPE LINE COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, CIO, PETITIONER
Case No.14-RC-894.Decided February 10,1950.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Harry.G.
Carlson, 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Reynolds].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
.the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. The question concerning representation :
The Employer and the Intervenor, Employees Mutual Petroleum
.Transportation Association, contend that an existing collective bar-
gaining agreement, entitled "Working Rules for Employees," con-
stitutes a bar to this proceeding. The Petitioner contends that the
agreement is not a bar because (1) it was not signed by the Intervenor,
and (2) it contains no reference to wages.
We find it unnecessary to consider these contentions. As the.ter-
mination date of the working rules is March 1, 1950, less than 1 month
away, we find that the working rules do not constitute a bar to this
proceeding.' .
We find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning.the
representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6). and (7) of the. Act.
Bentwood Products, Inc., -81 NLRB 635.
88 NLRB No. 127. •
631
632 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of all employees engaged
in the operation and maintenance of the Employer's oil pipe-line sys-
tem, excluding clerical employees and supervisors as defined in the
Act. The petitioner would include, and the Employer and the Inter-
venor exclude, all employees in the Communications and Oil Traffic
Division, and certain employees listed below who, the Employer and
the Intervenor contend, are supervisors.'
The employees in the Communications and Oil Traffic Division are
concerned chiefly with the operation and maintenance of the Em-
ployer's telephone and telegraph lines and equipment. The Em-
ployer maintains these lines for the purposes of communication and
the direction of the flow of oil throughout its system. The telephone
and telegraph lines run roughly parallel to the Employer's pipe lines,
so. that the employees in the Communications and Oil Traffic Division
frequently work at the oil stations or at other places where operating
employees work. Although the Communications and Oil Traffic em-
ployees work under supervision different from that of other-employees,
and do not interchange with them, they are none-the-less operating
employees.2 As such they may properly be included in a system-wide
unit of operating and maintenance employees.3 Accordingly, we shall
include them in the unit.
The Employer and the Intervenor would exclude the paint fore-
man, chief electric station operators, chief electric centrifugal opera-
tors, the assistant maintenance foreman-mechanical, assistant gang
foreman, and the maintenance foreman-electrical on the ground that
they are supervisors. All these men responsibly direct work crews
consisting of several employees. They have been excluded as super-
visors from the unit covered in past collective bargaining agreements.
They are all paid on a monthly salary basis, whereas nonsupervisory
employees are hourly paid. In view of these facts, we find that they
are supervisors within the meaning of the Act. We shall therefore
exclude them from the unit.
Accordingly, we find that all operating and maintenance employees
of the Texas-Empire Pipe Line Company, Tulsa, Oklahoma, includ-
ing employees in the Communications and Oil Traffic Division, but
excluding clerical and professional employees, chief electric station
operators, chief electric centrifugal operators, paint foremen, assistant
maintenance foremen-Mechanical, assistant gang foremen, mainte-
nance foremen-electrical, guards, and supervisors as defined in the
2 We do not regard difference in supervision per se a basis for exclusion. Kol-Master
Corporation, 75 NLRB 1229; The Pierce-Williams Company, 76 NLRB 1002 ; Jordan-Marsh
Company, 80 NLRB 343.
3 Cf. Gulf Refining Company, 62 NLRB 1385 ; Continental Pipe Line Company, 78 NLRB
879; Magnolia Pipe Line Company, 61 NLRB 723, 727.
TEXAS-EMPIRE PIPE LINE COMPANY 633
Act, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 4
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
thaw 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this
case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees
in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who
were employed during the payroll period immediately preceding the
date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not
work during said payroll period because they were ill or on vacation
or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein-
stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargain-
ing, by Oil Workers International Union, CIO .5
4 At the hearing and in its brief, the Employer regeested that any election directed in
this proceeding be conducted by mail . The method of conducting an election is a matter
within the discretion of the Regional Director.
6 The Intervenor having failed to achieve compliance, or to initiate steps for compliance,
with the filing requirements of Section 9 (f), (g), and ( h) of the Act, as amended , it will
not be accorded a place on the ballot.