The Frontier Refining Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 28, 1947

72 N.L.R.B. 995 (N.L.R.B. 1947)

In the Matter of TILE FRONTIER REFINING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and
OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION (CIO), PETITIONER
Case No. 17-R-1661.-Decided February 28, 1947
Mr. 1V. R. Newman, of Denver, Colo., and Mr. H. A. Brown, of
Cheyenne, Wyo., for the Employer.
Mr. B. J. Richey, of Casper, Wyo., and Mr. Coitilaw, of Adams
City, Colo., for the Petitioner.
Mr. Joe Dzivi, of Kalispell, Mont., and Mr. H. B. Guy, of Cheyenne,
Wyo., for the Intervenors.
Air. Thomas B. Sweeney, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon an amended petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held
at Denver, Colorado, on December 2, 1946, before Charlotte Anschuetz,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.1
Upon the entire record in the case, the National Labor Relations
Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
I. THE BUSINESS OF TILE EMPLOYER
The Frontier Refining Company, a Wyoming corporation, having
its principal office at Denser, Colorado, and its refinery at Cheyenne,
Wyoming, is engaged in the production, manufacturing, and sale of
petroleum and petroleum products.
During the year ending December 30, 1945, the Employer purchased
crude oil valued at $1,000,000, 1Q percent of which was shipped to its
refinery from points outside Wyoming. During the same period, 50
percent of the Employer's finished products, valued in excess of
$1,000,000, was shipped from the refinery to points outside Wyoming.
The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce
within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
'The petition and other fprmal papers were amended at the healing to show the correct
name of the Employer.
72 N. L. R. B., No. 168.
995
996 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
H. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress
of Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the
Employer.
International Union of Operating Engineers and Local 401 Inter-
national Union of Operating Engineers, herein collectively called
the Intervenors, are labor organizations affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer.
III. TIIE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On October 8, 1946, the Petitioner, by letter, informed the Employer
that the Petitioner represented a majority of production and main-
tenance employees at the Employer's Cheyenne, Wyoming, plant, and
requested recognition as their bargaining representative. The Em-
ployer refused, alleging that other labor organizations also claimed
to represent its employees under two existing contracts.
In its amended petition, the Petitioner excluded from its proposed
unit certain craft employees at the plant who were represented jointly
by various craft unions affiliated with the American Federation of
Labor and covered by one of the two contracts urged by the Employer
as a bar to recognition. Since the amended petition does not cover
these craft employees, the contract covering conditions of their employ-
ment does not constitute a bar to this proceeding.
The other contract claimed as a bar was executed by and between
the Employer and the Intervenors on December 16, 1945, and covers
production and maintenance employees in the unit hereinafter found
to be appropriate. By its terms, the contract was to remain in effect
until December 16, 1946, and thereafter from year to year unless
written notice to terminate or modify the same were given not less
than 30 days prior to the anniversary date. The contract further
provided that either party to the contract could initiate negotiations
for amending the contract on 30 days' written notice at any time dur-
ing the contract year. In August 1946, the Intervenors notified the
Employer that they desired to modify their contract. On October 8,
1946, as noted above, the Petitioner presented its claim to the Em-
ployer. On October 12, 1946, the Employer notified the Intervenors
of the Petitioner's claim. On October 14, 1946, the Petitioner filed
the original petition in this proceeding.
The Intervenors urge that the notice to amend the contract, served
on the Employer in August 1946, was merely a request for negotia-
tions and did not terminate the contract, but that the same was
automatically renewed on November 16 for an additional year. We
find it unnecessary to determine the exact effect of the Intervenors'
request to amend upon the terminal date of their contract. Since
THE FRONTIER REFINING COMPANY 997
the Petitioner gave notice of its claim to represent a majority of the
Employer's employees and filed the original petition in this proceed-
ing prior to the operative automatic renewal date of the contract,.
the contract executed on December 16, 1945, constitutes no bar to a
determination of representatives at this time.
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning-
the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning
of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
We find, in accordance with the stipulation of the parties,2 that all,
production and maintenance employees employed at the Employer's
Cheyenne, Wyoming, refinery, including over-the-road or city de-
livery truck drivers, and rackmen, but excluding boilermakers and-
boilermaker welders, carpenters, electricians, painters, pipe fitters,
pipe-fitter welders and insulators, and apprentices and helpers in each
of these classifications, clerical and office employees, technical em-
ployees, sales employees, dockmen in the sales department whose
duties are largely clerical in nature,' temporary construction em-
ployees, superintendent, assistant superintendent, chief chemist, open--
ating foremen, and all other supervisory employees with authority
to hire, promote, discharge, discipline, or otherwise effect changes in
the status of employees, or effectively recommend such action, consti-
tute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with The Frontier Refining Com-
pany, Cheyenne, Wyoming, an election by secret ballot shall be con-
ducted 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 Seventeenth Region, acting in this matter
as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Sec-
tions 203.55 and 203.56, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and
Regulations-Series 4, among the employees in the unit found appro-
priate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll
period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including
employees who did not work during said pay-roll period because they
were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off, and including em-
'The unit includes employees covered by the contract between the Employer and the
Intervenors , discussed in Section III, above.
J At the time of the hearing, the following employees fell within this category • Gordon.
Lawrence , Bud T Nelson , Stanley D . Rowley, Eldon Krouch , and Howard R. Nuss
4998 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployees in the armed forces of the United States who present them-
selves in person at the polls, but excluding those employees who have
since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or
reinstated prior to the date of the election, to determine whether they
desire to be represented by Oil Workers International Union (CIO),
-or by International Union of Operating Engineers and Local No. 401,
International Union of Operating Engineers (A. F. L.), for the
purposes of collective bargaining, or by neither.